Out Of My Element
by SouthernStars
Summary: Sequel to 'Chemicals React'. Gabriella and Troy have been going strong for six months until a championship, a musical and a certain blonde become involved in their lives.
1. You're A Jerk

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: Okay, here is the sequel to 'Chemicals React' I don't know how I'm going to go with this but I'm going to give it a go seeing as you all wanted a sequel. So here's the sequel! I have absolutely no idea where I'm going to go with this so just….bear with me!**

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 1**

**YOU'RE A JERK**

Gabriella stretched slightly. Sitting in a chair for two hours was not something she enjoyed doing. Groaning she threw down her pencil and stood up and silently thanked God that all her homework was finished. Gabriella picked up her phone and turned it on. Seeing how many calls she'd missed, she winced and then shrugged. If he wanted to talk then he was going to have to do it in person. Gabriella threw her phone onto her bed and threw open her balcony doors. She suddenly felt very giddy, and a small giggle escaped her. Gabriella spun around, still laughing and then stopped suddenly when she heard his voice.

"Whoa, you have really unpredictable mood swings." Gabriella spun to glare at the person who had spoken.

Troy Bolton stood, leaning against the doorframe, watching his girlfriend of six months spin around like a six year old at a party, in amusement.

"How long have you been standing there?" Gabriella demanded heatedly. Although she was mad at him, she had to admit he looked good, dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans and a white wife beater; he had the ability to make any girl forget exactly why they were mad at him. Gabriella herself was having trouble remembering why she was mad at him at the moment.

"Hmmm let me think, since you finished your homework." Troy replied easily slipping into the room and walking towards her, wearing a sly grin that he knew drove Gabriella crazy.

"You've been standing there for that long!? God, Troy……how come you were so quiet?" Gabriella suddenly went from mad to curious as he came to stop in front of her.

"Cause, Miss Montez, I am quite aware that you're furious with me and I knew you'd be madder at me if I distracted you from finishing your homework. Seeing as you're a nerd and all." Troy instantly regretted his words when Gabriella flared up again.

"Oh, I'm a nerd. Then what would you be Mr Bolton? Hmm, let me think. Oh I know a stupid, infuriating athlete who doesn't think school works important, mainly because he has absolutely no idea how to do it." Gabriella snapped back folding her arms tightly around her body and continuing to glare at him.

"Okay, you just told me I was stupid twice." Troy said easily, he loved toying with her and watching her grow more furious by the second. Gabriella continued to glare at him, not ready to let him get to her the way he had in the past.

"So? I really don't care." Gabriella threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes at him.

They were both silent for a moment, as Troy studied his girlfriend. He could tell she wasn't willing to get into another argument. That was pretty obvious. He could also tell she didn't want to be in the position she was right now and sighed, wishing he had been more careful when he had spoken to her.

"Gabs," he started and Gabriella looked up at him "Look; I know you're not happy about what I said and I'm sorry that I said that, for both times, in the gym and just now. I wasn't thinking." Troy finished and Gabriella sighed.

"I know, I'm sorry I blew up on you." she replied and Troy grinned pulling her into his arms.

"Hey, if you hadn't blown up I would have rushed you to the emergency room in a complete panic." He said cheekily and Gabriella grinned in spite of herself.

"Ha ha, you're such a jerk." She replied and Troy laughed as Gabriella looked up at him, her chin resting on his chest.

"I know, but you love me anyway." Troy said and Gabriella hit him.

"Another thing Montez, you have to stop hitting me! In the six months we've been together, you've probably bruised every part of my body just because you have absolutely no comebacks. And don't you dare hit me again because I just said that." Troy warned when he saw the look on Gabriella's face.

"Or what?" she asked innocently and Troy raised his eyebrows at her, recognizing the look on her face.

"Or else," he grinned and Gabriella smiled innocently and hit him on the arm. In one swift moment Troy bent down and grabbed Gabriella's legs and threw her over his shoulder.

"OH MY GOD! Troy! Put me down! I'm in a skirt!" She squealed and he laughed, before throwing her down on her bed.

"I told you you'd be punished." He pointed out crawling on top of her and starting to kiss her neck. Gabriella laughed.

"Yeah great punishment Bolton, throwing me on my bed." Gabriella said sarcastically as he moved up and kissed her mouth. Troy pulled away from her and grinned.

"Did I or did I not pick you up in a skirt when I knew your neighbor was looking?" Troy asked and Gabriella went bright red. Pushing Troy off her she jumped up and ran out to her balcony, squinting she searched for her neighbors face in the house. Troy came behind her and slipt his arms around her waist.

"You're such a jerk." Gabriella informed him, still searching for her neighbor, she felt Troy push her tumbling brown curls to one side and begin to kiss the back of her neck.

"I know. It's one of the only things you say to me." He reminded her and Gabriella shrugged.

"So? It's true. Where is Mrs Haliday?" Gabriella asked desperately and then she heard Troy chuckle.

"Gabs, no-one saw anything, I just said that as part of your punishment." Troy said and Gabriella turned, a furious look on her face, before she could say anything Troy kissed her firmly.

"Mmm-hmm……okay……maybe I……can…forgive……you…for……doing……that." Gabriella muttered as they continued to kiss. Troy suddenly pulled back from Gabriella and stared at her.

"What?" she asked and as his blue eyes looked at her worriedly, Gabriella could feel his hand on her forehead and began to wonder what she'd done wrong.

"Troy, what's wrong?" Gabriella asked as he continued to look at her worriedly. She didn't like the look on his face.

"You've got no temperature, you're not pale and I'm pretty sure you haven't been feeling sick at all." He said wonderingly and Gabriella began to feel worried.

"Troy, what'd I do?" Gabriella asked as he pulled away from her completely, looking at her up and down.

"You forgave me." Troy said and then burst into laughter as Gabriella went bright red, incredibly pale and then picked up a stuffed animal from her bed and threw it at him.

"You're such a jerk!" she exclaimed as Troy dodged the stuffed animal and continued to grin at her.

"Hey, you love me anyway. I've got to go. So I'll see you later." Before Gabriella could so much as protest he leaned in and kissed her quickly and then disappeared out the door dodging a flying cat as he did so.

"You're a jerk!" Gabriella yelled as the door shut and the stuffed cat bounced off the shut door. She heard Troy burst into laughter again and grinned in spite herself, at least he knew he was a jerk.

**A/N: So that's the first chapter! I hope you all liked it! Because that was a lot of fun to write! I'll try and get the next chapter up soon! I have a half formed plot for this one and have to figure it out! But normally I just sit and type so the plot shouldn't be too much of a problem!**


	2. Give Me My Phone

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: Here is the new chapter! I'm glad you all liked the last one, I actually do have a vague idea as to where I'm going with this so I'm not totally in the dark as to where I'm going with it. Enjoy!**

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 2**

**GIVE ME MY PHONE**

Gabriella pulled open her locker the next day and growled as her books slipt out along with a note that Gabriella chose to ignore. She knew it was either a stupid joke from Chad or a note from Taylor telling her to meet her after school to work on homework. Troy never left her notes, it wasn't what he did. Although he had left her a few, and they had all been incredibly sweet, Troy wasn't one to do something like that. Knowing him the way she did, Troy was most likely to write a note and then completely forget that he wrote it, only to find it months later and get confused as to why he wrote it. Gabriella grinned and shook her head at the thought of Troy staring at a piece of paper and wondering exactly why he wrote it. She let out a small giggle as she pictured the look on Troy's face upon reading a note that he had written to her.

"Someone's obviously been forgiven." Taylor commented coming up and hearing Gabriella giggle.

"Huh?" Gabriella asked looking at her friend curiously, that was not how you normally greeted a friend.

"You're giggling, you replied to my question with a 'huh' and your eyes are sparkling. All of that points to a certain person being forgiven for an argument _you _originally started." Gabriella glared at Taylor as her friend smirked and leaned against the locker next to Gabriella's.

"Okay, that argument we had? He actually started it, not me. The episode in the gym was just a continuation of what _he _started earlier." Gabriella told Taylor vehemently and Taylor laughed.

"What was he wearing?" she asked and Gabriella blushed a little as she said that.

"His old blue jeans and a white wife beater." Gabriella replied and then looked at her friend sharply.

"But what does that have to do with anything?" she asked curiously and Taylor grinned.

"You have a weak spot for Troy dressed like that. I know you do because you go slightly red every time you see him in one of those white things he wears, because, as much as I love Chad, when Troy wears those things, damn does he look fine." Taylor said and Gabriella went even redder and glared at her best friend.

"I do not have a weak spot for Troy dressed like that!" Gabriella exclaimed and Taylor laughed.

"Sure you don't, and you also don't start to stutter like an idiot and lose your train of thought when he appears in one of those things." Taylor pointed out and Gabriella blushed.

"You also seem to do a lot of that, even when he's not around." Taylor said and Gabriella groaned.

"Okay, I surrender……whoa." Someone nudged the small of her back and Gabriella started to fall. Before she could fall completely someone grabbed her waist and steadied her.

"Do you honestly have no balance whatsoever?" Gabriella heard Troy's laughing voice and allowed him to turn her around her before raising her hand to hit him.

"Now Montez, what did I say about hitting me?" Troy asked and Gabriella grinned at him.

"I'm not in a skirt Bolton." She said and Troy just shrugged and removed his arms from her waist.

"So? You still didn't hit me." he pointed out and Gabriella just shrugged.

"So? It's not like my hits actually hurt you," she replied and Troy laughed, reaching over her shoulder, he grabbed her phone and gave her an evil look.

"No they don't, but if you even think about hitting me again I'll make sure that you never see your phone again." Troy said and took off when he saw the look on Gabriella's face.

"Troy! Give me my phone back!" Gabriella yelled slamming her locker shut and taking off after him, leaving Chad and Taylor standing at her locker, greeting each other in their own unique way.

Troy laughed when he heard Gabriella yell. Although he knew he was breaking a rule running in the hall, he didn't exactly want to face Gabriella. When she wanted to be that girl could be quite intimidating. Troy pushed past a person and sent them reeling into a locker.

"Sorry!" he shouted over his shoulder, Troy caught sight of Gabriella and turned around again. He saw his homeroom and came to an abrupt halt in front of it.

Gabriella ran past the boy that Troy had pushed into the locker and bumped into him, sending his reeling back into the locker again.

"Sorry!" she shouted over her shoulder, the boy shook his head and winced and wondered exactly why the two were going out.

Gabriella saw Troy stop outside their homeroom and immediately realized that she wasn't going to slow down in time. '_Uh-oh_' she thought as she made an attempt at slowing down.

Troy turned to look down the hallway, searching for Gabriella. He saw the boy he had accidentally pushed be pushed back into the locker and felt sorry for the guy, knowing who had pushed him into the locker.

"TROY!" Gabriella yelled as she realized that she wasn't going to slow down in time. She saw him look around in surprise and closed her eyes, bracing herself for impact.

Troy vaguely heard someone yell his name, before finding himself flat on his back, his vision obscured by a mass of brown curls.

"Ow." Gabriella groaned and then looked at Troy who seemed slightly dazed.

"Are you okay?" she asked and he looked at her, his blue eyes darkening.

"Montez, you just knocked me to the floor. A floor that is hard and cold, to be exact, and you honestly expect me to say I'm okay?" Troy asked mockingly and Gabriella rolled off him, sending him a glare.

"I'll take that as a 'yes, I'm fine but am now seriously annoyed at you'," she said sarcastically sitting up. Troy followed suit and glared at his girlfriend, hating the fact that she could always read into his answers.

"Good guess." He snapped coldly and Gabriella just shrugged, knowing he always hated it when she read into his answers. Something that she was very proud of, it had taken her a couple of months to actually master it but she had. Troy stood up and turned to her offering her his hand.

"Thanks." She said quietly and Troy studied her, looking for any injuries.

"Your welcome." He replied and Gabriella smiled at him and then winced when she was pushed to one side as a blonde girl pushed through their joint hands. Troy saw her wince and gave her a look.

"What's wrong with your wrist?" he asked and Gabriella groaned, hating how he knew what was wrong with her before she even did. Troy hid a smile knowing she never liked it when he knew what was wrong with her and she didn't.

"I don't know," Gabriella snapped at him and Troy frowned at her.

"Show me." He commanded and Gabriella reluctantly let his examine her wrist. She winced when he applied pressure to it.

"Okay, you've sprained it. Nothing terrible." Troy said, releasing her wrist. Gabriella nodded and Troy pressed a kiss to her forehead, not realizing that they had an audience.

The students of East High had gathered around the two and where currently watching them with astonished. It was rare to see Gabriella and Troy act like a couple. Normally they were to busy arguing to act like they even cared about each other, so seeing Troy kiss Gabriella's forehead lovingly the way he just had, made them feel stunned and also slightly jealous. Nearly all of the girls watching wished that they were currently in Gabriella's position, and most of the guys wouldn't have minded being in Troy's position as they watched Gabriella reach up and press a kiss to his cheek and whisper something in his ear.

"Mr Bolton, Miss Montez!" Troy and Gabriella jumped away from each other upon hearing Miss Darbus' voice. The crowd groaned when they realized that the moment was over and when Troy and Gabriella turned to look at them they realized that they had an audience.

"Okay, I blame you for this." Gabriella hissed at Troy and he glared at her.

"How is it my fault that everyone's staring at us?" he shot back and Gabriella raised her eyebrows at him.

"You're the popular one," Gabriella pointed out and Troy shrugged, knowing that she had a point. Besides he wasn't sure that he wanted to argue with her in front of an audience again.

"Do you think we're going to get into trouble?" Troy whispered to her when they both saw Miss Darbus pushing her way through the crowd.

"Probably, you know she's not into 'public displays of affection'." Gabriella replied as Miss Darbus came to a stop in front of them, pushing her glasses back into place.

"As glad as I am that you two don't argue as much, you know your not allowed to-" Troy cut her off.

"Breathe?" He guessed and Gabriella stifled laughter as Miss Darbus went a delicate shade of red.

"No, Mr Bolton, you two know you're not allowed-" this time it was Gabriella's turn to interrupt their teacher.

"Move?" she asked innocently and Troy snorted slightly as Miss Darbus went slightly redder.

"Mr Bolton, Miss Montez, will you please let me finish my-" this time it was Chad that interrupted her, coming out of no where to join in annoying their homeroom teacher.

"Speech?" he asked and winced when Taylor hit him over the head.

"That's it, Mr Bolton, Miss Montez, Mr Danforth and Miss McKessie, detention!" Miss Darbus snapped and both Troy and Gabriella immediately regretted annoying her. She'd always been patient with them.

"But why?" Chad whined and Miss Darbus turned to him. Chad cowered slightly under her glare.

"Because, both Mr Bolton and Miss Montez were running in the halls, not to mention the display that just produced for all of East High to see, and you Mr Danforth decided to interrupt me when I was continuing my sentence and Miss McKessie chose to use violence as a way of stopping you from embarrassing yourself anymore. Now, all of you get to your homeroom NOW!" Miss Darbus roared and Gabriella, Troy, Chad, Taylor all jumped and ran into the room terrified of what would happen if Miss Darbus got on a roll.

As Gabriella walked past Troy's desk she glanced at him and saw his grin and then remembered why they had been running in the first place.

"Give me my phone." Gabriella hissed at him and she felt him press her phone into her hand as she passed. Gabriella grinned at him and seated herself, ignoring the looks some of her classmates had given her.

**A/N: This chapter may have seemed pointless, it certainly seemed pointless to me anyway. But it was basically to differentiate Troy and Gabriella's relationship at school and away from school. Anyway, I may update soon and I may not. It's Christmas soon so there a lot of things to do. Sorry! Also I'm going away for a month and don't know if I'll have internet access just thought I'd warn you, I hope to get another chapter up before then anyway. I hope you enjoyed! **


	3. Under Pressure

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: I'M BACK!!!!! You have no idea how bored I was on my holiday, not even the beach took my boredom away. Anyway, I actually rounded off the plot for this story in my head and was itching to get back to it and then I actually started a Zanessa story which has kept me occupied so hopefully that'll keep me on my toes. Anyway here is the new chapter!!!! **

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 3**

**UNDER PRESSURE **

Gabriella sat at her desk tapping it with her pencil; she glanced around at all the other students watching and silently wished she wasn't as smart as she was. At least then she wouldn't be finished with twenty minutes to spare. Almost unconsciously her thoughts strayed to Troy and a small smile flickered across her face as she thought about him, despite all their arguments and teasing, he was the only guy that could make her heart race when she saw him, the only guy who could look at her and instantly know how she was feeling and the only guy who could annoy her to a point where she couldn't remember why she loved him. The bell ran causing Gabriella to snap out of her thoughts and sigh in relief, quickly she gathered her things and headed out of the classroom, being one of the first out of the door.

"I take it you had the most boring lesson in the history of the world?" Troy's voice caused Gabriella to skid to halt and she glanced to the side of the door she had just come out of.

He grinned at her and causally walked over to her, slipping his hand in her free one and entwining their fingers.

"Considering it was History? Yes and what's with the public display of affection? This is the second time you've decided to claim me as your girlfriend." Gabriella asked and Troy went slightly red and then laughed.

"Sharpay's been at me again, it's actually getting kind of scary." Troy said and Gabriella laughed at her boyfriend who shot her a dirty look.

"It's not that funny Montez, you know Sharpay, she can be……scary." He defended himself against Gabriella's unspoken comments.

"Okay, okay, I'll let you go on this one Bolton." She said still grinning as they came to a stop by her locker.

"Thank you," he groaned and Gabriella laughed removing her hand from his and opening her locker. She quickly put her books in and shut the door.

"Ready for detention?" she asked allowing him to retake her hand.

"You, me, Chad, Taylor and Darbus stuck in a theatre for half an hour forgive me if I say I'm never going to be ready for detention." Troy said sarcastically and Gabriella laughed again.

"Don't worry, I think its going to be even better then that, I heard Ryan and Sharpay got a detention because Darbus caught them with their cell phones." Gabriella said innocently and Troy glared at her.

"Please tell me your joking, Gabi, tell me your joking." Troy begged and Gabriella looked at him solemnly, the spark in her brown eyes gave away her serious expression and Troy narrowed his eyes at her, Gabriella grinned back and the squealed when she felt Troy poke her side.

"Troy!" Gabriella exclaimed and he grinned at her, Gabriella jumped away from him and started to walk away when he grabbed her waist and pulled her back to him.

"Now this has nothing to do with Sharpay." He whispered before kissing her softly. Gabriella melted into the kiss, ignoring the shouts of astonishment from several people around them.

"Mmmm. What was that for?" Gabriella asked feeling slightly unsteady as Troy pulled away from her. He kissed her softly once more and then grinned.

"I just felt like it." he replied and Gabriella grinned stupidly and buried her head in his chest as she blushed.

"Well it was definitely nice." she mumbled into his chest and Troy laughed, kissing the top of her head quickly and then set her away from him.

"It had better be, everybody's staring at us now and I would say I'm used to it but I don't think I'm entirely comfortable with the looks." He said and Gabriella burst into laughter as she realized how awkward Troy looked, public displays of affection were never his style, especially in front of everyone walking in the hallway.

"That's because seeing us act like we might actually care about each other is completely foreign to everybody in this school, including Chad and Taylor." Gabriella pointed out and he raised his eyebrows at her and Gabriella shrugged.

"Its true, we were all lovey-dovey for the first few weeks of our relationship at school and then I think we both forgot how to act like that here." She said matter-of-factly and Troy shook his head.

"No, we stopped acting like a couple here because we kept on getting detentions for making out after every argument we had." he said and Gabriella shrugged as they headed for the theatre leaving a throng of students discussing whether or not Troy and Gabriella really were Troy and Gabriella or imposters.

"Either way, we never act like a couple here. Anyway, off the subject completely, how's basketball going?" she asked and Troy tensed automatically, Gabriella bit her bottom lip and laid a gentle hand on her boyfriends arm.

"It's going fine." He said tensely and Gabriella ran her hand down his arm and slipt her hand into his squeezing it and letting him know that it was alright. Troy relaxed slightly and squeezed back for comfort.

"That's good." She said softly as they entered the theatre. Troy smiled at her and Gabriella bit her lip again as she saw how forced it was.

"Miss Montez! Mr Bolton! Thank you for gracing us with your company." Miss Darbus said and Gabriella and Troy jumped away from each other and stared at their homeroom teacher.

"You're welcome Miss Darbus." Troy said all signs of his previous tenseness fading. Gabriella breathed a sigh of relief as she watched him relax and then turned and smiled at her homeroom teacher who was watching them with twinkling eyes.

"All right you two, Troy you can work on that tree with Chad and Gabriella you can work on the moon with Taylor." Miss Darbus ordered and Troy reluctantly let go of Gabriella's hand and walked over to his friend who was trying to figure out how to use the staple gun and had nearly ended up stapling his thumb a couple of times already.

Gabriella watched him go, slightly worried. She was well aware of the pressure on him to win the championship in two weeks and it worried her. Troy normally dealt well under pressure, but the weight of this game, his teammate's expectations, his father's expectations, and most of all the expectations he placed on himself had increased greatly since he'd found out that they had made the championship again. To Gabriella what made it worse was that they were playing a team that had beaten them at that particular level before and that only heightened the expectations on the team and most of all Troy.

"Watch where you're going!" Gabriella bit back a slight scream when she bumped into something pink and sparkly. Refraining from a sarcastic comment Gabriella looked at the girl she had run into and winced. Why did she have to run into Sharpay Evans of all people? Gabriella quickly racked her brain for some sort of defense before Sharpay attacked her. Sharpay spun around and stunned Gabriella by smiling sheepishly.

"Sorry Gabriella, I didn't see you there." Sharpay said and Gabriella gaped at her in astonishment, she had never expected Sharpay Evans to apologize for anything, including bumping into her.

"Uh, its fine Sharpay," she replied, when she'd found her voice, and Sharpay smiled again.

"I'm still sorry. Anyway, what'd you do over vacation?" Sharpay asked and Gabriella opened her mouth and closed it again before answering.

"Um, just hung around here actually. Nothing special. What about you?" Gabriella found herself replying as she made her way over to where Taylor was working silently.

"We went to France actually. It was a lot of fun." Sharpay replied following her. Gabriella smiled at Taylor, who shot her a questioning look. Gabriella shrugged before turning back to Sharpay.

"That does sound like fun. Did you go to the Eiffel Tower?" she asked and Sharpay nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah we did. The view was amazing, you could-" Sharpay was cut off by an angry shout and all three girls jumped. Gabriella gulped as she saw Coach Bolton storming down one of the aisles.

"Where's my team Darbus?" he yelled and Gabriella stole a glance at Troy who seemed frozen to the tree he was working on.

"Coach calm down-" Miss Darbus began and he cut her off.

"No, I won't calm down; we are playing in a championship in two weeks! _Two weeks_! And Troy and Chad cannot afford to miss any of the practices! Every single one counts!" Miss Darbus stopped herself from rolling her eyes with extreme difficulty and nodded.

"Troy, Chad! Get in the gym _now_!" Coach Bolton yelled at them and Troy jumped down from the tree and was off the stage and out the door before anything else came out of his father's mouth. Gabriella watched him go, worriedly chewing on her bottom lip as the door banged shut as Chad ran out of the theatre.

"Gabs are you okay?" Taylor asked looking at her friends face, Gabriella yanked her gaze from the door that Troy had run out of to her friends and sighed.

"I'm fine, but I don't think Troy will be." She said quietly and before Taylor could speak Sharpay spoke up.

"He'll be fine Gabriella. I've known Troy since kindergarten, and although I don't know him as well as you do, I do know Troy deals well under pressure. He'll be fine." She said and Gabriella was suddenly very grateful that Sharpay was there. Yes she hardly knew the girl, and yes it was strange that she was being nice to her but at least she'd offered some comfort to her.

"Thanks Sharpay, I hope your right." Gabriella said softly, her gaze finding the door again.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Gabriella was lying on her bed reading a book when her door banged open and Troy stormed in. She jumped and sat up as he nodded his head at her and then continued to storm around the room. Gabriella noted the look of frustration mixed with anger on his face and crossed her legs to watch him patiently; knowing that when he was ready to talk he would talk or yell. Which ever one suited him the best at the moment. After a few more minutes of storming around her room he stopped by her balcony doors and faced her, telling her he was ready to talk.

"What happened?" she asked softly and Troy ran a hand through his hair.

"Dad happened. That's what happened. Dad thought that it would be great for him to coach me. Oh yeah, it was such a brilliant idea, best idea he and mom ever thought of. It got him out of the house and it let him have father-son time with me," Gabriella waited silently as Troy took a breath "He doesn't own every single second of my life and he doesn't have any control over Darbus and her detentions. But do you think that he thinks like that? Oh no, all it ever is now is the championship. So if I get a detention it affects the championship, if I decide I want to go out with you instead of going for a run it affects the championship. If I decide I don't want to go to training it affects the championship and the team for that matter. But it doesn't end there, oh no, it goes on. If I don't make that basket it's the difference between a win and a loss, if I don't stop that basket it's the difference, hell if I screw up at all apparently it's the difference between a win and a loss and _we're not even playing yet_!" Troy's voice was growing louder and louder and Gabriella decided that interrupting him was the worse possible thing she could think of doing at the current moment.

"Do you think he doesn't know I already get that? He's even blaming you for distracting me and the stupid game is two weeks away and everybody seems to know that we're going to win. _How would they know_? They don't know how insane it is to be placing bets on who's going to shoot the winning basket! We are playing a team that has beaten us before we've even gotten to the championship! Everything is against us, am I the only one that sees how insane we are? Am I the only one that's feeling the pressure?" Troy shouted at her and Gabriella stood up and moved over to him.

"No, baby, you're not the only one that sees it. It's okay Troy," she said softly wrapping her arms around him. Troy buried his face in her hair and breathed in the smell of her hair. Citrus and the smell of her perfume mingled together and filled his nostrils and he sighed.

"Thanks." He muttered after a moment and Gabriella rubbed his back and kissed his shoulder. She pulled back and Troy kissed her for comfort. Gabriella brushed his hair back when he'd pulled away from her.

"I love you Troy." she said softly and he smiled, resting his forehead on hers.

"I love you too Gabriella." He replied softly and she kissed him again. Troy returned her kiss and for a moment all the pressure he'd been under lifted as he forgot about the championship, his dad and the expectations of everyone around him.

**A/N: I know the bit with Sharpay was random, but just go with it. As for Troy and the pressure, if you've ever played in a championship or grand final, with your parent as your coach you'll get what he's on about especially when you have the expectation of every one around you piling on top of you. It's always worse when you're aware of how much people are relying on you to do the right thing. That's basically what Troy was on about. Anyway, I'll hopefully update soon. I'm going to have to cause I think I owe you after disappearing for a month!**


	4. Don't You Dare

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: Okay, I know I haven't updated in a while. So sue me, I was having trouble and finally got over it by writing a few one-shots, so enjoy this chapter! **

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 4**

**DON'T YOU DARE**

Gabriella ran up to her locker completely out of breath and panicky. She was late. Very late in fact. Troy had stayed over at her house till close to eleven-thirty the night before, watching movies and talking to her. After his rant, Gabriella had no idea what he'd wanted to talk about and it turned out he _had_ wanted to talk, sort of. Her mother had come home earlier then Gabriella had anticipated and had caught them in a……decidedly heated moment that involved him shirtless and her bed. This had been the follow up of a very fiery argument, which had originated because of pizza. Troy had left soon after that. And as much as she loved her boyfriend, there was no way he was getting out of this little hole he'd helped dig. Because not only had he made her late, but he'd also managed to make sure that her Dad flew home early from Switzerland just to lecture her about 'birds and bees' as her mother had managed to tell her with a straight face as soon as she'd gotten up. Basically, it meant that Troy was a dead man.

"Miss Montez, you're late." Gabriella past a teacher in the deserted hallway and smiled an apology. Yes, she definitely was going to kill him.

Quickly she made her way to Miss Darbus' room and prayed that her teacher was in a good mood. Because Gabriella, _really_ didn't want a detention. She was lucky she'd escaped a grounding, besides she couldn't kill Troy if she was handed a detention. Gabriella opened the door to her homeroom and was relieved when she heard Miss Darbus announcing musical auditions, which was always a good sign. It meant that Miss Darbus wasn't likely to hand out a detention, even if she was………a good fifteen minutes late. Gabriella gulped as she shut the door and everyone turned to look at her. She caught sight of Troy's horror stricken face and knew that he was well aware of how mad she was at him.

"Miss Montez, how pleasant of you to join us." Miss Darbus said her earrings dancing on her shoulders as Gabriella smiled weakly at her.

"Uh-" Miss Darbus cut her off.

"Miss Montez, I do not need to hear your excuse because I'm sure that it involves Mr Bolton and a decidedly 'passionate' moment between the two of you. After all he only just arrived a few moments before you." Miss Darbus said, her eyes twinkling as she watched Gabriella's face go bright red.

Gabriella's eyes found Troy, who had sunk even lower in his seat and was the colour of a tomato. 'You are so dead' she mouthed at him and he just gave her a helpless look that Gabriella would have laughed at if she hadn't been completely furious at him. Quickly, she made her way to the desk behind Taylor and sat down, sinking low in her desk and glaring at the back of her boyfriends head. She ignored the snickers of some of her classmates and the half-sympathetic, half-amused look Taylor shot her and the plain amused one that Chad gave her and tried to think of the best way to murder Troy. She'd gotten as far as wondering how to get into his bedroom in the middle of the night to kill him when the bell rang. '_Thank you God_' she thought gratefully and stood, she quickly grabbed her bag and ran out of the classroom.

Gabriella rolled her eyes as she walked past some of the girls in her homeroom that giggled when they saw her. She could tell this wasn't going to be a good day. What had just happened in homeroom had confirmed it. And she knew that Troy was not going to make it any easier on her, especially if he was in the same mood he had been in yesterday and the day before that. Gabriella reached her locker and spun the dial.

"So……what happened last night?" Taylor's voice caused Gabriella to jump and she turned to her.

"Do you realize that you do that to me nearly every day?" Gabriella snapped at her and Taylor chuckled.

"Yep. It's routine. Anyway, spill, what happened?" Taylor said and Gabriella glared at her.

"Nothing happened." Gabriella replied and Taylor snorted.

"Yeah right nothing happened last night. Do you think I'm stupid or something? You were late and you're never late." Taylor said and Gabriella snorted.

"So? Troy was late too." She said and this time Taylor was the one that snorted.

"Yeah, but Troy's always late." She pointed out and Gabriella gave her an odd look.

"No he's not. Troy's on time most of the time, _your_ boyfriend, however, is never on time." Gabriella said and Taylor shrugged.

"No he's not!" Taylor protested and Gabriella raised her eyebrows.

"Taylor, in the past week how many times has Chad been late for school or to pick you up?" Gabriella asked and Taylor blushed.

"Uh, I'm going to choose not to answer that." Taylor said and Gabriella gave her a look that said 'told you so' and Taylor hid a wince. She hated it when Gabriella pointed out something about Chad that she'd tried to ignore.

"Uh-huh." Gabriella said and grinned at her friend.

"So are you going to tell me what happened last night?" Taylor changed the subject quickly and Gabriella blushed bashfully and Taylor grinned.

"Troy and I just spent some time together last night." Gabriella said shrugging and Taylor rolled her eyes.

"Physical time together or talking time together?" Taylor probed and Gabriella blushed.

"Uh……" Gabriella trailed off and it was Taylor's turn to raise her eyebrows.

"Physical?" she guessed and Gabriella shrugged, growing redder by the second.

"I, uh, guess you could say that." Gabriella mumbled and Taylor laughed.

"Oh Gabriella, what happened?" Taylor giggled and Gabriella shrugged, shutting her locker and turning to her friend.

"Mom caught us," she started and Taylor burst into laughter.

"Doing what?" she giggled and Gabriella smiled a little.

"Um, well, Troy might have been shirtless and I might have been under him and we might have been on my bed and my shirt may have been coming off." Gabriella said and Taylor nearly collapsed in hysterics as Gabriella smiled sheepishly.

"And let me guess, that's why you want to kill Troy." Taylor said and Gabriella nodded.

"Kind of. He's also the reason that I'm late." She said and Taylor shook her head.

"You're unbelievable." Taylor shook her head and Gabriella just shrugged.

"So? He is too." Gabriella said and walked off, leaving Taylor feeling confused and still very, very amused.

Gabriella sighed in relief when she heard the bell ring for free period. It was good timing, she was bored out of her mind and was sick of getting looks off some of the people in her class who had heard about the episode in homeroom that morning. She quickly got up and gathered her things and headed out of the classroom, towards her locker. She threw her books into the locker and then headed off to find Chad. Out of experience Gabriella knew that Troy would be at Chad's locker, waiting for him to find some missing part of his training uniform so they could head to free period work out together.

"Chad!" Gabriella yelled suddenly when she saw the familiar afro, hovering half-a-head above the crowd. He turned with a confused look on his face and then winced when he saw who it was.

"Hey Gabriella." He said looking terrified; Gabriella held back laughter and came to a stop in front of him.

"Where's Troy?" she asked and Chad tensed up.

"Uh, well, you see," he stalled and Gabriella folded her arms and frowned.

"You don't know do you?" she asked and Chad shrugged, fidgeting with his training shirt.

"Chad, you can just nod or shake your head. I'm not going to get cranky." Gabriella said and Chad shook his head quickly and backed away from Gabriella who rolled her eyes and then turned on her heel and stormed off in the opposite direction.

'_Where is he?_' Gabriella thought frustrated, fifteen minutes later. He wasn't in any of his usual places and he definitely was _not_ at free period work out. Gabriella walked past the theatre and stopped. She bit her lip. '_He wouldn't, would he?'_ she thought and then shrugged. He could be in weirder places. She yanked open the theatre door and walked in. She walked in and headed for the main entrance to the theatre. She walked into full view of the stage and immediately jumped to the wall. The musical auditions had started. '_Not good._' Gabriella thought and immediately headed for one of the side entrances. She had less chance of being seen there. Walking as silently as her heels would allow, Gabriella turned a corner and stopped dead in her tracks.

Troy was lying on his back, his head resting on some books, sound asleep. Seeing him lying there, looking so peaceful, almost melted Gabriella's heart. Almost. Walking over to him, she knelt down and lifted his head off the books. Pushing the books away Gabriella shifted so that her back was against the wall, her legs were spread out in front of her and his head was resting on her lap. Giggling softly, she ran her hand through his hair and watched as his eyes fluttered open.

"Hi." She whispered and one of his hands searched blindly for her other hand. Gabriella gave it to him and he interlaced their fingers loosely and kissed the palm of it. Gabriella nearly melted on the spot. It wasn't a kiss on the lips, but it was one of those things that he did that brought her to her knees.

"Hey yourself." He replied sleepily and Gabriella smiled softly at him.

"Your still dead, you know that right?" she asked and Troy made a sound in the back of his throat that Gabriella could only describe as his sleepy attempt at a chuckle.

"Which reason? The fact that your Mom caught us making out or that in a round about way I made you late for school?" he asked and Gabriella leaned down and kissed his forehead softly.

"Both." She replied and Troy grinned, waking up a little more.

"You know Montez, it was worth it." he said and Gabriella just smiled.

"I hope it was to you, Dad's flying home to give me the 'birds and bees' lecture." Gabriella said and Troy burst into laughter, Gabriella hit his head lightly as he laughed.

"Sorry, but that's funny." Troy said calming down. Suddenly both jumped as a loud, horrifying screech tore through the theatre.

"What was that?" Troy asked sitting up quickly and looking around. Gabriella sighed quietly. It was always over to soon. The moments when they were just an ordinary couple who talked and acted like a couple. Not when they were the fieriest couple at school, who appeared to have nothing in common and only ever seemed to argue over nothing, the couple who always made out after a huge argument, the couple who had no deeper, more meaningful side to their relationship. Just an ordinary couple that held hands when walking, and talked when there was nothing else to do.

"Gab, come and see this." Troy's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and Gabriella stood up and joined her boyfriend. Who was watching the beginning of Sharpay and Ryan's musical audition with evident amusement and sarcasm. Gabriella stood beside him and watched, in pure astonishment, the show Ryan and Sharpay were putting on. Her hand found his and Gabriella smiled softly when she felt Troy entwine their fingers.

"_So good to be seen, so good to be heard, don't have to say a word,_" Troy snorted quietly as he watched Sharpay lean over so far she was blocking Ryan's face. That girl was slightly too theatrical and slightly too high-pitched.

"_So lonely before, I've finally found what I've been looking for._" They both sang finishing on what they must have thought was a high note, Gabriella winced as they finished. That had all been way too much. She held back a giggle as she watched Sharpay shoot the pianist a look telling her to applaud and to think that it was the same girl that had been reassuring and nice only the day before.

"Are there any last minute sign ups?" Miss Darbus yelled bringing both Gabriella and Troy's attention to the fact that they were still in the theatre. "No? Good." Miss Darbus said and Gabriella shot Troy and evil look. He shook his head at her.

"Don't you dare, Gabriella! Don't you dare." He hissed as she let go of his hand and stepped out of the shadows that they were standing in. She sent him one last look and Troy slipped behind the wall, not wanting to see what his girlfriend was going to do.

"I'd like to audition Miss Darbus!" Gabriella exclaimed before her teacher could leave the theatre. She watched as Miss Darbus stopped in astonishment and turned to look at her.

"I'm sorry Miss Montez but the singles auditions are long over and there are simple no other pairs. As you can see." Miss Darbus nodded around the empty theatre and Troy closed his eyes. He knew what was coming.

"Please Miss Darbus." Gabriella begged in a small voice that she knew would undo Troy completely. '_I'm gonna regret this later_' Troy thought miserably as he stepped away from the wall.

"I'll sing with her." Gabriella turned her head to see her boyfriend walk out from behind the brick, one and raised and the other rubbing the back of his neck.

"Troy Bolton." Miss Darbus sounded so shocked when she saw Troy that Gabriella thought that she was going to have a heart attack on the spot.

"Where's you sports posse or whatever it's called?" Gabriella eyed her teacher, who was acting like she was speaking to a three year old.

"Team." Troy corrected raising his eyebrows.

"Ah, yes. Well, unfortunately for you two you didn't respond in time when I called for the pairs auditions. Free period is now over." Miss Darbus said sounding slightly hostile and Troy wondered what exactly he'd done wrong as they watched their teacher walk out of the room.

Gabriella closed her eyes. That _really_ hadn't worked. Troy turned to her and raised his eyebrows asking '_What now?_' and Gabriella shrugged. Her plan had been to humiliate him in front of Miss Darbus and now she couldn't even do that.

"Uh, excuse me guys, but can you really sing?" Gabriella and Troy both spun to face a petite girl whose auburn hair was covered by a cap and whose face looked faintly hopeful. They exchanged a glance. 'Don't you dare.' Troy mouthed at Gabriella who looked thoughtful.

"Yeah, we can, why?" she replied and ignored Troy who slapped his forehead and groaned as the girls face lit up in absolute delight.

**A/N: Okay, this will sort of follow the movie but I'm going to tweak a few things here and there. And can anyone sense that Gabriella's not entirely happy about something? Well, hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner rather then later. Sorry for the delay!**


	5. Out Of My Element

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: Okay, so I'm updating sooner rather then later hopefully none of you have gone insane waiting for this chapter. I got that vibe a lot from some of the reviews. So I hope this means the standard that I feel I've been set.**

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 5**

**OUT OF MY ELEMENT**

Troy stared at his girlfriend as he watched her run up to the stage behind the girl. He could not believe that she had actually done that. She knew that he couldn't sing. He'd always been hopeless at it. With a heavy sigh, Troy followed them knowing that he was too tired to argue with Gabriella and too tired to actually care about what he was doing. When he reached them he stood beside Gabriella and leaned on the piano. The girl had set out a piece of music and Troy looked at it. He ignored his girlfriend who was standing next to him, looking faintly excited. Troy was jolted out of his tired state when the girl began to play the piano. She played for a moment and then shot him a look, telling him to start.

"_It's hard to believe that I couldn't see, you were always there beside me…_" Gabriella looked at Troy in complete shock, unable to believe that something that amazing could come out of his mouth. She suddenly realized that it was her turn to sing when he gave her a look.

"_Thought I was alone with no-one to hold, but you where always right beside me…_" Troy gazed at Gabriella in surprise, he'd heard her sing before, but it was usually when she was singing along to her stereo and he'd never paid that much attention to her when she did that. He'd never heard her sing like this, he'd never just heard her voice.

Troy barely realized that he was singing again as her brown eyes captured his blue ones. Unknowingly he smiled at her, he loved the sparkle in her eyes, it somehow enhanced all her features, making her more beautiful then ever.

"_I've never had someone that knows me like you do, the way you do……_" Troy smiled at the words, for some reason they rang so true. Troy knew he'd never had someone know him the way Gabriella did, there was just something about her that chose to know the other side of him and know that other side inside out.

"_And I've never had someone as good for me as you, no-one like you……_" Gabriella's smile grew wider at the words. No, she'd never had someone as good as for her as Troy. He was the only one who could stand up to her and get away with it, he was the only one that could rile her up to breaking point and then kiss her in such an entrancing way and make her completely forget why she was furious with him. She'd never had anyone like him.

"_So lonely before, I've finally found what I've been looking for……_" Troy's hand wandered over to Gabriella and without thinking he found her hand and entwined their fingers, as they both ended the note Troy raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. Reenacting a similar move that made Gabriella just as weak at the knees as it had nearly fifteen minutes before.

"_Ooooohhh……_" Gabriella ended the song a soft smile gracing her lips that was directed at her boyfriend. Out of all the things they'd ever done together this had felt the most real to her, what ever had just happened between them was more real then their arguments, more real then when she played basketball with him and he let her win, more real then _anything_. Gabriella still wasn't quite sure what had just happened between them, but just looking into his sparkling blue eyes she knew that _something_ had happened.

"Wow." Troy whispered, knowing just by looking at her that she was thinking the same thing as he was, that she'd felt something happen just as he had.

"Bolton, Montez, you have a callback! Kelsi, give them the duet from the second act. Work on it with them!" All three of them jumped when they heard Miss Darbus' voice echo through the silent theatre. They all spun to look at her, she nodded at them and then disappeared.

Troy watched as Gabriella's entire face lit up again at Miss Darbus' words. He let her pull her hand away from his and take the sheets that the girl at the piano handed her. Without thinking Troy accepted the sheets that the girl thrust into his hands and slowly walked away from her and Gabriella, who were conversing rapidly about practices. Troy stared down at the music sheet he'd been handed and it suddenly clicked with him what had just happened. He _could not_ have a callback. That wasn't right. Nothing about this scene was right. First of all, he wasn't even meant to be where he was. Secondly, he wasn't meant to sing _at all_. Thirdly, Gabriella was not meant to be so excited, last time he checked she _hated_ singing in front of people and that's what callbacks were. Singing in front of people. Troy turned back to his girlfriend to tell her that there was no way he was going to do callbacks and stumbled back almost immediately when Gabriella threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his torso and burying her face in his chest. Troy wrapped his arms around her, unsure why she hugging her.

"I'll see you at rehearsal Troy." Troy looked up at the auburn-haired girl who had been playing the piano. He suddenly realized that this was Kelsi and nodded.

"Thanks Kelsi, I'll see you then." He smiled and Kelsi smiled back hesitantly and walked down the stairs that led off the stage. Troy buried his face in Gabriella's dark hair and breathed in, letting her smell wash over him.

They stood there for a moment longer. Gabriella wrapped around Troy, her eyes closed in pure contentment and Troy holding her tight, breathing in her smell and wondering why in the world she was clinging to him the way she was. Finally, Troy pulled back and looked down at her wonderingly.

"Not that I don't enjoy the moments when you throw yourself at me, but what was that for?" he asked and Gabriella giggled and leaned up and kissed him quickly.

"That was for singing with me. I can't believe that you actually sang." She replied and Troy laughed and raised a hand to run it through his hair, bemused.

"Neither can I. You do that to me, Montez." Troy said and Gabriella looked at him strangely, that was not something she'd ever expected him to say.

"What do I do to you Troy?" Gabriella asked quietly and Troy went red, he was never very good when it came to explaining himself to Gabriella. Especially when it came to her effect on him and everything he did.

Gabriella looked up at him expectantly. Her brown eyes curious and slightly impatient. Troy knew that he wasn't going to get out of explaining to her what he meant and sighed, replacing his hand around her Troy pulled her closer then before and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"You make me do things that I can't quite explain, you make my heart beat faster when ever you walk into a room, you make my breathing hitch when you stand right in front of me and are furious, you make me feel out of my element when you melt into me and forget everything around and you make me fall even more in love with you every day when you walk into a room and are nothing but yourself." Troy whispered in her ear, softly, lovingly even seductively. Gabriella felt her eyes fill with tears at his words.

This was the reason she was with him. This was the reason that she loved him so completely, this was the reason she was always out of her element. Because no matter how mad she got at him, no matter how much she swore she hated him sometimes and no matter how indecisive their relationship was sometimes. He would make it up to her by saying something that would make her fall even more in love with him. _This_ was the side of their relationship that nobody knew existed, _this_ was the side that Gabriella treasured. Every time this side presented itself to her every other aspect of their relationship seemed so unimportant. Looking up into Troy's brilliant blue eyes that were looking down at her so softly, so lovingly, Gabriella smiled at him feeling stupid for allowing a tear to slide down her face. Those blue eyes darkened considerably when they saw the tear and Gabriella knew he thought he'd said the wrong thing as he wiped it away with his thumb.

"God I love you." She whispered and Troy's eyes smiled at her, Gabriella raised her head towards his, begging him to kiss her. Troy responded instantly and he crashed their lips together, letting everything he felt for her flow into the kiss. The passion, the love, even the fury that he sometimes felt for her and he felt her respond to him just as devotedly. She matched him every step of the way, as Troy pulled her even closer to himself making sure there was absolutely no space between them.

Finally the need for oxygen became apparent and Gabriella pulled back, her eyes still closed as she felt Troy trace kisses around her face, before finally letting his lips wander back to hers in a softer, gentler kiss.

"Mmmm, I love you." Gabriella whispered when Troy rested his forehead on hers and she was sure that she could talk.

"I love you too Montez." Troy replied just as quietly. At the back of his mind Troy remember where they were and why they were there, but pushed it aside. He was _not_ going to ruin this amazing, fragile moment between the two of them just because he didn't really want to sing.

"You make me feel out of my element Bolton." Gabriella sighed and Troy grinned slightly at her use of words.

"You make me feel out of my element too Montez." Troy replied and Gabriella just smiled, before threading her fingers through his hair and pulling his head down to kiss him again. '_Out of my element, perfect way to describe it_' Troy thought dazedly as his own hand wound through her dark curls.

**A/N: Okay, that was deep and serious and I know your all wondering when the blonde comes in, don't worry she's coming in soon. But for the moment I think that's enough. Don't worry, talking about the callbacks comes in next chapter. And this chapter will tie in later with the rest of the story! I think it will anyway. I hope you enjoyed and that it reached the standard! **


	6. Totally Destroy

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: Okay, here is the new chapter. I've decided, since I've only just realized that I don't tell any of you how much I appreciate your reviews, I want to dedicate this entire story to my reviewers, the old ones that I've come to depend on for encouragement, carito6, GGfan00, insaneR, idolized, Zanessa Fan Forever, ChasingGhosts, Bellerina, Jewel5205, HauntedWhisper714 God there's so many of you that I would love to mention but if I did there would be an entire chapter of names! Unfortunately I can't do that. But I want you to know that all of your reviews have been appreciated and read with great anticipation. So this story is for your guys, it's my way of showing appreciation for all of the reviews and all of you who've taken time to write one. Thanks!**

**CHAPTER 6**

**TOTALLY DESTROY**

Gabriella walked through the doors of East High and immediately stopped dead when she saw half the basketball team staring blankly at a piece of paper. '_Uh-oh_' she thought knowing from the looks on Zeke and Jason faces that whatever that sheet of paper said it was definitely going to land on her head. Putting her head down and allowing her curls to cover her face, Gabriella sped past them in time to hear Sharpay's astonished screech and Chad's disconcerted spluttering. As she walked Gabriella suddenly realized that the hallway had quieted and they all were staring at her. '_This is _not _good!_' she thought as she reached her locker. Gabriella stopped and turned to look back down the hallway and almost immediately the entire hallway burst into life and everyone pretended they weren't staring at her. Gabriella rolled her eyes and turned back to her locker, opened it she placed her books in and then was immediately spun around again when Taylor grabbed her arm.

"What on earth did you think you were doing?" Taylor snapped at her friend furiously.

"Okay. Hello to you too." Gabriella said and Gabriella yanked her arm away from Taylor.

"Are you completely insane?" Taylor hissed at her and Gabriella stared at her.

"No. Are you?" she asked and Taylor glared at her friend. Gabriella raised her eyebrows and turned back to her locker rummaging around in search of her book.

"I can't be. I'm not the one that auditioned for the school musical." Taylor shot back and Gabriella froze in complete shock.

"Whoa. How'd you find out?" she asked and Taylor stared at her friend, she'd obviously forgotten the fact that East High's great vine found out anything worth interest within minutes of it happening.

"Great vine. That's not the point," Taylor waved her hands dismissively and Gabriella waited for her to continue. "The point is; you auditioned for the winter 'musicale', as Darbus insists on calling it, with _Troy Bolton_. Do you have _any_ idea what you've done?" Taylor practically screamed and Gabriella raised her hands motioning for her friend to calm down.

"No, I don't know what I've done. And can you please not refer to my boyfriend as '_Troy Bolton_'? It's weird enough that people say his name like that all the time. And what the heck is 'great vine'?" Gabriella replied and Taylor stared at her friend, wondering how she could _not_ get it. Ignoring the questions Taylor tried to think of a way for her friend to understand what she'd done.

"Okay, Gabs, listen to me. You and Troy cannot, I repeat _cannot_, audition for the school musical or get callbacks. He is the basketball star and you are the science nerd, to put it simply. Technically, you two aren't even meant to know each other and we can thank the stupid assessment for the fact that you're now dating. Now do you get why you can't be involved in anything like auditions with someone like your boyfriend?" Gabriella stared at Taylor in complete shock. This was the first time ever Taylor hadn't seemed supportive or comfortable with her relationship with Troy. Something about her friend's words set of warning bells somewhere in the back of Gabriella's mind but she ignored them.

"No. I still don't. And you know that stupid assessment? Wasn't that also the assessment that made you fall for Chad? Or are you two over now because he's a basketball star and you're a science nerd?" Gabriella shot back furiously. She felt more then slightly provoked by her friends words.

"How can you not get it? And for your information, Chad and I are on a break because he's got the championship to worry about and I've got the decathlon. And as my best friend you should have been there for me when it happened even though it was a mutual decision. Instead you were off auditioning for a musical!" Taylor snapped and Gabriella stared at her friend in utter shock. Taylor had _never_ acted like this. It just wasn't who Taylor was. And that best friend comment stung, much more than anything else.

"Okay then. I'll talk to you later, _bestie_." Gabriella placed sarcastic emphasis on the last word, watching Taylor wince and then turned around and walked away. Ignoring the students who were watching her as she stomped down the hallway.

Gabriella glanced behind her at Taylor, who was still standing at her locker in some sort of shock, and then looked back in time to crash into someone. They both shrieked and Gabriella grabbed the girls arm for support while the girl grabbed her arm.

"I'm _so_ sorry……are you okay?" Sharpay asked as Gabriella steadied herself and they recognized each other. Gabriella looked at the blonde and suddenly realized Sharpay wasn't asking her if she was okay because they'd run into each other.

"Um," Gabriella swallowed and then forced a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine Sharpay." She continued and Sharpay eyed her. She could tell something was up with the girl in front of her, it was written all over her face.

"No your not. What's wrong?" she asked and Gabriella raised her eyebrows, being interrogated by Sharpay Evans, someone who hardly knew her, wasn't exactly what she expected this early in the morning.

"Nothing." Gabriella replied and Sharpay rolled her eyes, grabbed her hand and dragged her into an empty classroom.

"You're not a very good actress Gabriella. Tell me what's wrong." Sharpay demanded and Gabriella stared at her before caving.

"Taylor and I just argued about the fact that I sort of auditioned for the musical with Troy and she said some things that I never thought I'd hear from her mouth. Something along the lines of 'I'm a science nerd therefore I'm not allowed to hang out with jocks, let alone audition for musicals with them'." Gabriella replied sitting on a desk, Sharpay nodded and sighed.

"I get where she's coming from. But that's not all is it?" The blonde girl studied the brunette and Gabriella shrugged and then shook her head. Wondering why she was telling _Sharpay Evans_ this of all people. Gabriella continued, even though she expected Sharpay to be brandishing a dagger within the next few minutes.

"No, she said some things that left me under the impression that she didn't want me to be in a relationship with Troy anymore. It's the first time she's ever said anything like that." Gabriella said shrugging, Sharpay sighed again and came and sat down on the desk next to Gabriella.

"Okay, well, I guess you could say I get where she's coming from. On both sides of the argument. What she's saying about the whole audition thing is true to a lot of minds in this school. Basketball star, science nerd, no offence of course, and a musical? Something doesn't exactly seem right there does it? But the damage there is done." Sharpay took a breath and Gabriella stared at her, she seriously hadn't expected this. She hadn't expected Sharpay Evans to act like a _friend_ of all things. "And the relationship thing. People are talking. They're not entirely sure you're perfect for Troy anymore. They'd much rather have a cheerleader with the basketball star then someone that makes him happy. Besides, you've been with him too long and everyone here is bored with your relationship, six months of watching you two argue is enough for most people and some people think that your relationship with Troy isn't as solid as they've been led to believe. They all see cracks in it and they're trying to hurry a break-up a long. Taylor included." Sharpay explained and Gabriella stared at her appalled by what had just come out of her mouth.

"That can't be true. Why would they want us to break up? Don't they want Troy to be happy?" Gabriella asked trying to not wince at how cliché it sounded.

"Oh that's true. And I already told you that most people are bored of your relationship. I can actually tell you that people had bets on how long you'd last. Three months was the longest anyone actually placed a bet on you two lasting, besides nobody here has actually been in a relationship that lasted as long as yours has." Sharpay replied and Gabriella let out a disbelieving snort at Sharpay's words.

"You cannot be serious. Someone has to have had a relationship that lasted more then three months." Gabriella said and Sharpay shook her head solemnly.

"No. Before everyone started Freshmen year they signed an agreement that whoever got into a relationship while at school they had to break up with whomever it was when three months was up. It was made that way so that everyone got to date everyone else." Sharpay said dramatically and for a moment both girls looked at each other and then they both burst into giggles.

"Okay. Gabriella Montez and Sharpay Evans getting along. Will the miracles never cease?" Troy's voice caused Gabriella to look up and the sparkle in her eyes to brighten.

"Considering our arguments seemed to have diminished? No." She replied and Troy strolled over to the two girls and leaned down and gave Gabriella a leisurely kiss.

"Well then, maybe our arguments need to start up again." Troy murmured when he pulled away.

"You wish Bolton." Gabriella replied softly wrapping her arms around his waist, Troy laughed before kissing her again. Weaving one hand through her hair and with the other he held the back of her neck.

Sharpay watched the two, rolling her eyes. No she wasn't jealous of the fact that Gabriella was going out with Troy Bolton even though many people didn't believe her when she told them. In fact, Sharpay hadn't even cared that they were together when she was told. She'd never had a thing for Troy and she barely knew Gabriella, so it was of absolutely no concern to her. She had the various musicals and plays that Darbus threw at her and her brother to keep her occupied. But then Gabriella and Troy had auditioned and she had heard them. Boy had she heard them. And they were _good_. Even now Sharpay could still hear their voices blending together perfectly, something no matter how hard she and her brother tried, they could never quite achieve. And Sharpay knew what was inevitable. They were going to take the musical away from her and Ryan. And there was no way she was allowing the two people she was watching to take that away from her and as she watched them Sharpay knew the only way to destroy their chances of taking the leads away from herself and her brother, was to totally destroy their relationship.

**A/N: Okay so I think I've cleared up the fears of Sharpay stealing Troy, Troy breaking up with Gabriella in order to be with Sharpay and then realizing that Gabriella really is the girl for him. Sorry to anyone that wanted it but, that storylines way over used and I personally don't like it. Anyway, as I said before this story is dedicated to my reviewers and to give some of you a heads up I'm discontinuing my story 'Shooting For The Stars' its going no where and I can honestly not be bothered to delete it. Also I'm going to start a new story anyone who's interested. I'm done now, I think these two authors notes are the longest I've ever written!**


	7. Something Changed

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: Okay, I hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter! I liked it and I'm sorry that most of you thought that Sharpay was going to be nice, but someone has to be the antagonist! I **

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 7**

**SOMETHING CHANGED**

Gabriella blew out a frustrated breath as she stared at the algebra problem. She couldn't concentrate. Throwing down her pencil, she leaned back in her chair and pushed her hair behind her ears. She knew why she couldn't concentrate, ever since she'd arrived at school this morning everything had been off. First off Taylor seemed to have a split personality; second Sharpay was being nice to her, even though she and Troy had sort of auditioned for the school musical, which was Sharpay's territory. Thirdly, everyone at the school now seemed to hate her which confused her no end and finally she hadn't seen her boyfriend since homeroom when she was with both him and Sharpay. The last one wasn't that important, she was used to seeing Troy very rarely now, the championship and his father had made sure that they almost never saw each other during school time, although Gabriella knew that if she wanted to see him, he would either be in the gym or at his locker. Sighing, she looked around the room to see all her classmates scribbling away on their tests, her eyes rested on Taylor and Gabriella still had no idea what she had done wrong. So she and Troy had sang? It wasn't like they had meant for Miss Darbus to hear them. Actually _getting_ a callback wasn't exactly what she'd planned. But Taylor wasn't going to believe her and the rate it was going; no-one in the school was going to believe her.

"Miss Montez is there a problem?" Mrs Richards asked and Gabriella snapped back to reality.

"No Mrs Richards." She replied leaning over her test again and making an attempt at pushing the subject from her mind.

When the bell rang, Gabriella was one of the first out the door. She needed comfort and at the moment the only place she felt she was going to find it was in the arms of her boyfriend. Walking quickly Gabriella sighed in relief when she saw Troy was standing at his locker, the door open, talking to one of the cheerleaders. At least she could see the cheerleader talking; she couldn't see Troy doing any talking. As quietly as she could, Gabriella placed her books in his locker, and wrapped her arms around him. Almost immediately Troy half-turned and pulled her around to his front. Gabriella tightened her grip on his waist and buried her face in his chest.

"It was nice talking to you Amy." Gabriella heard Troy dismiss the cheerleader in a terse voice and tried not to smile as she heard the cheerleader stutter a few times before presuming she'd stalked off.

"Okay, she's gone, now are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Troy whispered in her ear after a few moments. Gabriella took a moment to respond; instead she wondered how he could know her so well. How could he possibly know something was wrong? What would happen if she just wanted a hug? Would he still ask the same question?

"Hey, Alice, come out of wonderland and talk to me." Troy said softly and Gabriella reluctantly removed her face from his chest.

"Can we talk? Somewhere, where people are going to be less inclined to overhear us?" She asked and Troy gave her a strange look but nodded and unwrapped his arms from her petite frame. Gabriella refused to let go of his waist however and Troy looked down at her in surprise, she was _never_ this clingy and, although he was surprised, he enjoyed it and was going to take full advantage of it. When Gabriella needed him, she never made it this obvious.

"Gabriella," he said and she groaned and let one arm fall from his waist. Troy laughed, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and shut his locker door. Leading her towards their destination, Troy found it difficult to ignore the hard stares and snide remarks that followed them. He shook his head and wondered how the students at their school could have a complete change in attitude.

"Uh, Troy? Where are we going?" Gabriella's voice broke through his thoughts and he looked down at her and felt an indescribable feeling to kiss. Troy glanced around and had to fight the feeling when he saw Miss Darbus standing a few feet away.

"You'll see when we get there." he replied as they stopped by a door and he leaned over and opened it.

"Tr-oy!" she complained and he grinned, as his arm slipped from her shoulders and his hand found her own.

"Montez relax. I know where I'm going." Troy grinned and Gabriella stuck her tongue out at him and the feeling that he'd fought down a few seconds ago resurfaced and this time Troy had no inclination of pushing it away. Swiftly he yanked her closer to him and closed his lips over her exposed tongue. Gabriella was immobile for a second before falling into the kiss.

"Okay, um, you never, um……" Gabriella trailed off and gazed up at him, her dark eyes dazed and slightly confused. He never, ever kissed her like that, definitely not out of the blue like the way he just did.

"What was that Montez?" Troy grinned down at her cockily and Gabriella gave him a half-hearted glare before leaning up to kiss him again. Troy let her get as close to his lips as she could before pulling away. Gabriella opened her eyes but only saw the back of his head as he pulled her up the stairs.

"Troy? Repeating a question that I know you hate, but where are we going?" Gabriella asked and he glanced behind him as they reached the top of the stairs.

Gabriella eyes widened and Troy let go of her hand to let her explore the place as he settled onto the bench. He had to laugh at the look on her face when she came back to him, her eyes childlike and sparkling. Troy patted the space next to him, indicating for her to sit down. Instead Gabriella slid into his lap, wrapping an arm around his neck and finding one of his hands and entwining their fingers. Troy wrapped his spare arm around her waist and breathed in her scent.

"Do you like it?" he asked softly and Gabriella nodded resting her head on his shoulder and unknowingly replicated her boyfriends move of breathing in his scent, she smiled as the mix of Lynx deodorant and his cologne mingled together and filled her nostrils.

"I love it." she replied softly and Troy smiled and kissed her forehead. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Troy decided to speak.

"Alright, as much as I love it when you cling to me, but can you tell me what's wrong?" he asked and Gabriella shifted so she could look at him.

"Okay, first off my best friend seems to have a split personality, secondly Sharpay was being _nice_ to me, thirdly everyone at school seems to hate me and finally I, God this sounds weird, I don't like not seeing you nearly every day." She admitted the last part quietly and Troy felt a shadow of a smile play on his lips as she admitted the last part. Gabriella was never one to admit things like that.

"Alright Gabi, listen to me, Taylor doesn't have a split personality, Chad seems to have the same problem as she does and what that problem is, I've got absolutely no idea. Secondly Sharpay being nice, don't worry about that, she might have a fever and was completely delirious," Troy stopped when he saw the look on her face, he raised his eyebrows at her and Gabriella just shook her head. "Thirdly, nobody hates you……they're just, I dunno, being teenagers. I'm not very good at this am I?" Troy asked scrunching up his face; Gabriella giggled and shook her head.

"No you're not." She replied quietly and Troy sighed helplessly.

"Okay, how about this? I don't not like seeing you nearly every day; I _hate_ not seeing you every day." Troy said softly and Gabriella smiled at him.

"See that you're good at." She said softly and Troy sighed and kissed her lovingly. Pulling back Troy was silent for a moment.

"Gabs, we need to talk about these callbacks." He said reluctant to break the mood, Gabriella's head snapped up and she stared at him.

"You don't want to do them?" she asked softly and Troy sighed and thought before he spoke.

"I do. Gabriella, I know what you felt when we were singing, it was written all over your face when the music stopped. I felt it too. But, I mean, Gabs, I've got the championship and you've got the Decathlon and don't you dare say you're not doing it. You should and you know it," Troy warned when Gabriella opened her mouth to protest. "And I don't want to screw up the championship and the decathlon just so we can see if we're good at singing." Troy said quietly and Gabriella sat frozen for a moment, unsure how to respond to him.

"Troy……I get what you're saying. But, but it felt real, so much more real then anything we've ever done before. I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose whatever side of our relationship the music uncovered. I know that its weird saying that seeing it's only been a day. But something changed Troy. _Something changed_." Gabriella was restless as she spoke fiddling with the hair on the nape of his neck and then tracing his jaw line gently.

"You want to do it?" Troy asked softly and Gabriella nodded. Troy looked at her and knew that he wanted to do the callbacks as much as she did. Suddenly a smile crept across his face and Gabriella looked at him curiously.

"What?" she asked and Troy leaned forward and kissed her gently.

"You're right Gabriella. Something changed." He agreed and Gabriella's eyes widened before she threw the restless hand around his neck and their lips crashed together. Something definitely had changed; a week ago Troy would have never agreed to do something as out there as callbacks for the school musical.

**A/N: Okay, that chapter is done! I have to be blunt with you guys this stories going to be longer then 'Chemicals React'! Anyway, I'll make an attempt at updating soon.**


	8. Teasing

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: Okay, so I just want to say this to Sophie220 the last chapter was actually about them doing callbacks. If you read the last part of that chapter you can actually pick up on it. I know that it seemed pointless, when I read your review I went back to reread it and I get what your talking about. The callback thing wasn't exactly the main focus of the chapter and it kind of ran together when I was typing the other conversation. **

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 8**

**TEASING**

Troy stared at the black board with a blank expression. He honestly didn't know how Gabriella did it. Who could be absolutely riveted by _algebra_? Glancing at her again, Troy rolled his eyes as he saw her scribbling away on her notepad, trying to figure out the equation on the board, obviously his girlfriend was. Troy shifted his gaze back to the board, a bored expression replacing his blank one. He _really_ needed something to do. There was ten more minutes of torture to go and the teacher looked like she was asleep. This meant that she wasn't going to yell at him for not doing his work. Now the only thing left was to decide what to do. Troy glanced at Gabriella again and suddenly a small smirk erupted on his face. If there was one thing he was good at it was annoying Gabriella and doing it while she was trying to work was always a lot of fun. Very carefully Troy's hand slipped off the desk and he watched Gabriella carefully as his hand came in contact with her knee. Her hand that was resting on the desk twitched and the smirk turned into a grin as he lightly ran his fingertips up her thigh, displacing the material of her skirt as he did so. He watched as she shifted and bit her lip. Slowly, he ran his fingers back down her thigh and grinned again as shot him a stony look.

"Troy don't." Gabriella hissed glancing at the teacher. Troy grinned harder and leaned in closer to her.

"Why not?" he asked glancing at her work, Gabriella leaned over her book, covering the pages with her arms.

"Because amusing yourself for the next ten minutes by running your hand up and down my thigh will result in you getting in _serious_ trouble." She replied quietly and he leaned in even closer.

"Montez, I still haven't gotten in 'serious trouble' for when I somehow made you late. Do you honestly think I'm that worried about getting in trouble?" he asked and Gabriella glared at him.

"Bolton, you know that I can get you into serious trouble." Gabriella said and Troy smirked, his blue eyes mocking.

"How can you get me in serious trouble Montez? Last time I checked, I was the one holding all the cards." Troy whispered his hand running back up her thigh. It was Gabriella's turn to smirk.

"How many people know how cute you were when you were a baby?" She asked and Troy blinked at her. Gabriella grinned; somewhere in the back of her mind she noted that although some aspects of their relationship had changed this one had stayed exactly the same. They were still able to tease each other.

"How many know how gorgeous you are in the morning?" Troy shot back and Gabriella stared at him.

"Come again?" she asked and Troy grinned.

"I have these awesome photos of you at six o'clock in the morning. You look hot in some of them. Others, the wicked witch of the west looks prettier." He said and Gabriella gaped at him.

"You took photos of me at six o'clock in the morning? What were you doing in my room at six o'clock in the morning?" she snapped at him and Troy shrugged.

"Actually, you were in _my_ room and I didn't take them mom did. She thought we looked cute." He replied and Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"Remind me to stay in the guest room next time I sleep at your house." She muttered and Troy laughed quietly.

"You know you can't resist Montez." Troy said and Gabriella looked at him slyly. Glancing at the clock a small grin slid onto her face and she leaned towards him till their lips were only inches apart and their noses were just touching.

"You're right Bolton," she whispered, Troy's eyes darkened slightly as she moved and her lips _just_ touched his neck. Gabriella moved back up and this time their lips were so close, Gabriella was having trouble remembering that she wasn't meant to kiss him. "I can't resist." As soon as the words left her mouth the bell rang and Gabriella pulled away from. Troy groaned softly and Gabriella grinned. Before uttering a soft moan as he squeezed her thigh and moved to kiss the back of her neck.

"Remember Montez, I can tease back." Troy whispered in her ear before getting up and walking out of the room.

"Jerk." Gabriella muttered gathering up her books. She didn't notice Sharpay approaching her as she placed her books into her folder.

"Hey Gabriella." Gabriella jumped when she heard the blonde's voice and then smiled at Sharpay.

"Oh hi Sharpay, how are you?" she asked and Sharpay smiled at the brunette.

"Not bad, how about you?" she replied and Gabriella shrugged glancing in the direction that Troy had gone.

"Okay I guess." She replied with a sigh.

"Mmm-hmm, what was with you and Troy?" Sharpay asked and a grin slipped onto Gabriella's face as she realized Sharpay was talking about the teasing.

"Nothing, he was bored and wanted to annoy me." Sharpay nodded and studied Gabriella carefully; she wanted to see if there was more to what they had been doing then what Gabriella had let on.

"Well, you'd better start telling people that." Sharpay said and Gabriella raised her eyebrows as they left the room and began walking down the hallway.

"Why?" Gabriella asked curiously.

"Well, you guys had the class' attention when Troy's hand found your thigh and cause nobody could hear what you guys were saying they kind of……assumed." Sharpay explained and Gabriella groaned and ignored the group of girls that they passed who shot her cold glares.

"That's just brilliant, isn't it? I bet you anything by the end of this afternoon everyone who _doesn't _hate me, _will_ hate me." Gabriella said and Sharpay perked up. She gave Gabriella her full attention; maybe Gabriella would say something that would put her plan into action.

"What do you mean by that?" Sharpay asked and Gabriella wondered if she could trust Sharpay, what she wanted to say was something that neither Taylor nor Troy knew.

"Sharpay, you cannot be that dumb. Seriously haven't you been paying attention these last few days? Ever since Troy and I sang and Miss Darbus gave us a callback, the entire school hates me, not to mention Taylor hasn't spoken to me at all since yesterday and Troy……well I don't think that Troy has really noticed anything wrong." Gabriella explained frowning slightly as she realized that Troy hadn't given her any indication that he'd noticed a change in the attitudes of their classmates. Sharpay grinned slightly when she saw Gabriella frown, so maybe their relationship did have a crack in it.

"What do you mean Troy hasn't noticed? I mean it's kind of obvious." Sharpay asked and Gabriella shrugged.

"He just doesn't. Troy isn't the perfect person that everyone sees. He forgets things; he can become so focused on a task that everything around him just fades into the background. Like the game that decided whether they got into the championship or not? Troy was meant to meet my grandparents and he forgot all about that and ditched me for training." Gabriella said and Sharpay's mind reached overdrive as the plan she had started to formulate earlier, fully took shape.

"How could Troy forget something like that?" she asked and Gabriella shrugged.

"Ask Troy, he'd be able to give you a crash course." Gabriella said straightening as she saw Kelsi approaching. Sharpay saw the petite auburn girl approaching as well and sighed.

"I've got to go Gabriella, but……do you want to go to the mall after school or you could come over to my place or something?" Sharpay asked and Gabriella bit her lip, she had a million things to do, practice for the musical, talk to Taylor, tutor Troy, decathlon practice, it went on and Gabriella suddenly shook her head.

"That'd be nice Sharpay. I'll meet you out front okay?" she asked and Sharpay nodded and walked off.

"Hi Kelsi. How are you?" Gabriella turned her attention the petite girl standing just behind Gabriella.

"I'm alright, um, Gabriella. Are you and Troy doing callbacks?" she asked quietly and Gabriella suddenly smiled as the memory of them singing came flooding back to her.

"Yes we are. Do you want to organize a rehearsal time?" Gabriella replied and Kelsi brightened immediately.

"Sure, um, does during last period sound okay?" Kelsi asked, naming their free period for the day. Gabriella bit her lip again and then shrugged.

"Sure. I'll see you in the music room. Do you want us both there?" Gabriella asked and Kelsi tilted her head.

"Yes please. That way I can figure out which of you need the most work." She replied and Gabriella nodded as she spied her boyfriend walking down the hallway, the centre of the group.

"Sure. I'll tell him." She replied and Kelsi slipped away.

Troy glanced around the hallway as he made his way down it and smirked when he saw Gabriella leaning up against a locker, one leg bent, her foot resting on the locker, watching him walk down the hallway. Her books had been dropped to the ground and her arms were folded as she tilted her head to one side. Troy slipt away from the group, ignoring the knowing smirks and chuckles of his friends, as he headed over to his girlfriend. Troy reached Gabriella and put his hand just above her hand and leaned on it, crossing one leg over another as Gabriella looked up at him demurely.

"So, been enjoying yourself Montez?" He asked and Gabriella smiled sweetly up at him.

"What do you think Bolton?" She asked her voice nearly a purr. Troy moved closer to her and Gabriella tilted her head up to look up at him.

"I think you may have been waiting for me." he replied and Gabriella's eyes fluttered downward and she pushed herself off the locker and up against him, her hand slid up his shirt and traced his toned stomach and Troy's eyes darkened slightly.

"I think you may have been right." She squirmed as Troy's hand found its way under her own shirt and began to trace patterns on her back.

"Montez……" he breathed and Gabriella leaned up to his ear, her fingers still tracing his abs.

"We have rehearsal with Kelsi last period." She whispered in his ear and Troy smirked. So she knew how to tease. But that didn't mean she was going to have the final word. Troy pulled her even closer to him and leaned down to her ear, his lips grazing it gently.

"Watch what you're doing Montez. Teasing can get you in trouble." He whispered and then pulled away so abruptly that it took Gabriella a moment to realize that he was gone.

**A/N: The next chapter is up, I don't particularly like it but what can you do? Um, you'll all find out what Sharpay's going to do in the next chapter. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it!**


	9. Towel Of Doubts

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: Okay, for all those who don't know, I've started a series of one-shots that are sort of a fill in for the six months between 'Chemicals React' and 'Out Of My Element'. It's titled 'Kaleidoscope of Contradictions' and the first ones already up. Also I want to apologize for how long it took me to get this chapter up, I'm really sorry about it. It was a complete accident and I'm so sorry that it happened. **

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 9**

**TOWEL OF DOUBTS**

Gabriella walked into the music room and adjusted the strap of her bag. She sincerely hoped that Kelsi would get here before Troy. She wasn't to sure that she could handle being alone in a room with Troy, not after the way they'd been acting towards each other today. She hadn't been thinking when she'd started the teasing. But now she was really regretting it. Because he hadn't let up. Every chance he got, he would touch her in some way that was so, so sensual and then he'd get half way and stop. And it was driving her beyond insane. Because she hadn't kissed him all day and the way he had been touching her had built a burning desire that Gabriella was well aware could reach boiling point and snap all of her self control if she was in a room alone with him. Gabriella jumped when she heard the door open and her snapped around to see who had walked in.

"Hey Gabriella," Kelsi said softly and noted curiously how Gabriella visibly relaxed when she saw who it was.

"Hey Kelsi, how are you?" Gabriella asked and Kelsi smiled at her and sat down on the piano seat.

"I'm alright. Do you know when Tro-" Kelsi was cut off as Troy burst through the door. He made an attempt at stopping and, because of the speed which he ran into the room, had to grab Gabriella's waist to keep himself from falling. Gabriella gripped his shirt to keep herself steady and then felt her breathing hitch in her throat as she suddenly became fully aware of her body pressed up against his. The sudden closeness after nearly a day of separation caused Gabriella's thoughts to become an indecipherable mess.

"Montez, glad to know you're more solid then you look." Gabriella stared up at him, desperately searching for the sharp retort that nearly always accompanied a comment like that.

"Bolton, glad to know you decided to be on time." She shot back and Troy's eyes narrowed.

"When have I ever been late for anything?" He asked letting her go and stretching. Gabriella's eyes flicked downwards as his toned mid drift came into view.

"Hmmm, let me think. When have you ever been late? When you were meant to meet my grandparents, you were two _hours_ late, when you were meant to pick me up so we could go to the movies, you were twenty minutes late and then there was the time when-" Gabriella cut herself short when she saw the look in Troy's eyes. The twinkle was back. Slowly he stepped forward and Gabriella found herself captivated by his brilliant blue eyes.

"Montez……" Troy drew out the name as he looked down at his girlfriend in amusement.

"Bolton." The warning was there, he heard it in her tone of voice and Troy grinned. That's what he'd been waiting for. He felt her tense when his hand came in contact with her upper thigh; very deliberately his thumb caressed it carelessly, in slow, circular motions. Gabriella bit her lip at the contact, leaning down Troy came within a hairs breadth of her lips and Gabriella found herself aching to meet his lips with her own.

"Now, Montez, are you going to behave?" Troy asked lazily and Gabriella opened her half closed eyes and glared at him. The grin that had slipped off Troy's face returned. The fire was back.

"Bolton, if you don't take your hands off me right now, I'll make sure that you can't play basketball for the next twenty years." She said sweetly and Troy obeyed her. Stepping away from, Troy allowed his hand to slide off her thigh and watched in satisfaction as she squirmed. She started it, she should be able to deal with the consequences, he thought and grinned again as Gabriella glared at him.

Kelsi watched the two interact in curiosity and frank amazement. She'd never actually thought that Troy had any _real_ power of Gabriella. But after that little display, she couldn't doubt who was in control of their relationship. It was obvious, at least to her, that Troy had the power to break Gabriella in two if he ever wanted to. It was also obvious, to Kelsi at least, that while Troy held that power, Gabriella could just as easily hurt him. Watching them over the past few days, Kelsi had discovered that, while Troy was the dominant one in their relationship, he constantly sort Gabriella for approval and comfort. Something Kelsi was sure he had never done in any of his previous relationships. Something she considered herself to be somewhat of an expert in, mainly from what she heard in the girl's bathroom because she always seemed to be in there at the wrong time.

"Uh, guys?" Kelsi started timidly after a moment, Troy and Gabriella both turned to look at her, as if stunned to discover that she was still there.

"Oh, uh, sorry about that Kelsi. What do you want us to do?" Gabriella asked sending Troy an annoyed look. Kelsi smiled at the flustered look on Gabriella's face and the amused one on Troy's.

"We've got to get started. We only have around twenty minutes before the final bell rings." She said timidly and Gabriella smiled kindly.

"Okay, Kelsi, tell us what we have to do." Troy said suddenly and Kelsi and Gabriella both stared at him in amazement.

"What? I can take orders when I want to." He said in response to the looks. Kelsi and Gabriella exchanged a glance and then Gabriella shrugged and Kelsi turned to the piano to pick up the music sheet.

Gabriella sighed in utter relief when the bell ran signaling the end of the day. Picking up her bag Gabriella said goodbye to Kelsi and followed Troy out the door. When the door was shut and they were in the crowded hallway. Troy stopped and turned around.

"Troy……" Gabriella stepped back from him as he looked down at her. Reaching up Troy touched her brow and ran his hand down her face to run a gentle thumb over her lips.

"Montez……you actually look scared." He said with a grin and Gabriella growled at him as his hand slipped from her face.

"Disappear Bolton." She snapped and Troy shrugged and slipped away from her. Gabriella watched him go and then turned and stomped out of the school doors. She looked up and came face to face with Sharpay, who seemed more then slightly amused at the look on her face.

"Let me guess, Troy?" she said and Gabriella glared at her and then sighed. Running a frustrated hand through her hair, she nodded.

"Got it in one." Gabriella replied and Sharpay laughed.

"I have to say, Gabriella, whatever Troy's doing to you or trying to do to you, it seems to be working." Sharpay said and Gabriella sighed and closed her eyes.

"Please don't remind me. I don't know even know _what_ he's trying to do to me." Gabriella said and Sharpay laughed and linked her arm through Gabriella's.

"Come on, lets go to the mall and I'll treat you to a smoothie and you can tell me exactly why you and Troy are together." Sharpay announced and Gabriella laughed and allowed Sharpay to lead her to her car.

As she slid into the passenger seat, Gabriella caught sight of Troy running on the track. Biting her lip, she studied him for a moment, admiring the strength in his strides and the gracefulness of his body. Sighing, Gabriella turned away from him to look at Sharpay, who was concentrating on the road in front of them.

"Sharpay? Why are you being nice to me?" Gabriella asked and Sharpay glanced at her.

"What do you mean?" She replied and Gabriella bit her lip again and thought about it.

"Well, Troy and I auditioned for the musical, which is your territory and you're not bothered by it at all. I mean, you could hate my guts and instead you're acting more like my friend then……my other friends." Gabriella said and Sharpay let out a laugh. But for some reason, she felt strangely warmed by Gabriella's words.

"Well, it's either hate your guts and try destroy you and Troy or accept the fact that Ryan and I _finally_ have some competition. I think that accepting is better then destroying." Sharpay replied and Gabriella smiled at her. Surprised and pleased by her honesty, Gabriella settled further into her seat and they struck up an easy conversation. As Sharpay hunted for a parking space in the mall car park. Finally, they found one and Gabriella got out of the car as her phone went off. Looking at the caller ID Gabriella frowned when she saw that it was Taylor.

"Hello?" She answered the phone.

"Gab? We have decathlon practice. Where are you?" Taylor snapped into the phone and Gabriella shut the door of the car and walked around to Sharpay.

"I'm at the mall with Sharpay, Troy has practice and I was aware that I we had practice and I decided that I needed a day off." She shot back and she heard Taylor sigh.

"Gabriella, I don't want to argue okay? So I'll let this go." Gabriella softened at her friend's tone of voice.

"Alright, I'll talk to you tomorrow Taylor. Bye." Gabriella hung up and smiled at Sharpay. Who linked her arm through Gabriella's again and lead her towards the doors that lead into the mall.

"So, Gabriella, I have to ask about you and Troy," Sharpay started and Gabriella looked at her curiously.

"What do you want to know?" She asked as they weaved their way in and out of shoppers.

"Uh, well, why are you together? I know that sound weird, but I mean, you've been together for six months already and most relationships that Troy has been in have ended at the three month mark, not because of the silent clause or anything, but because most of the girls he's been out with don't remember why they went out with him in the first place." Sharpay said and Gabriella looked at Sharpay. Her mind drawing a complete blank as she searched for an answer.

"I-I-I don't know." She replied, stunned at the fact that she had no answer and Sharpay almost grinned, she'd gotten the angle she'd been looking for.

"Does he?" Sharpay asked and Gabriella looked at Sharpay at loss for words. _Did_ Troy know why they were together?

"I don't know that either." She replied and Sharpay stopped by a jewelry store. Gabriella turned away from Sharpay to look at the display of rings; one in particular caught her eye. It was a simple heart shape cut sapphire, flanked by two diamonds, set in a simple white gold band. Gabriella stared at it long enough for Sharpay to become curious as to what she was staring at. Seeing the ring, Sharpay stared at it and wondered why Gabriella was looking at it.

"Gabriella," Sharpay started, trying her hardest to sound hesitant. Gabriella looked at Sharpay, her eyes darker then usual. "Maybe, maybe you and Troy aren't meant to be. What if you guys are just together for the sake of being together? I mean, from what you've told me in the past couple of days you guys are like chalk and cheese and you spend more time annoyed at him then you do happy with him. Doesn't that spell complete disaster to you?" Sharpay asked hesitantly and Gabriella stared at her, her eyes darker then they had been when she'd turned from the window.

Sighing Gabriella turned from Sharpay to the ring again. Was Sharpay right? Were she and Troy meant to work out? Were they a complete disaster? Did she spend more time annoyed at him, then happy with him? Gabriella closed her eyes briefly as the doubts that had suddenly appeared swirled around her head. She reopened them and didn't notice the look of satisfaction that slipped onto Sharpay's face when the blonde girl saw the sudden doubt in Gabriella's eyes.

"I don't know Sharpay. I honestly don't know." Gabriella replied quietly and Sharpay shrugged.

"Its alright, come on. Lets go and get that smoothie and then I can see this gorgeous dress that you'd look great in, we'll go have a look at that." Sharpay said cheerfully and Gabriella tried to smile at her. But she couldn't shake the doubt from her mind.

"You can drop me off just here." Gabriella said to Sharpay and Sharpay nodded and pulled up on the curb. Gabriella took off her seatbelt and turned to her, smiling at the blonde. Sharpay smiled back.

"Well, Gabriella. Thanks for coming with me." Sharpay said as Gabriella reached behind her and grabbed her schoolbag and the two other bags that she'd attained at the mall.

"Anytime Sharpay. I had fun." Gabriella smiled at her again and then reached out and gave Sharpay an impromptu hug. Sharpay stiffened at the unfamiliar contact, before relaxing and hugging Gabriella back.

"See you tomorrow Sharpay." Gabriella said and got out of the car. Sharpay smiled.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow Gabs." Waving Sharpay put the car in gear and pulled out of the curb. Gabriella watched the car disappear and then walked up the footpath to the house. Sighing, she knocked on the door and waited patiently. Running a hand through her hair, Gabriella smiled as the door opened and Joanne and Mia Bolton came into view.

"Gabriella! I didn't think you were coming over tonight!" Joanne exclaimed as Mia reached for the girl in front of her.

"It wasn't planned or anything, sorry about that, hey Mia," Gabriella quickly took her boyfriends younger sister from her mother and kissed the side of her head. "But I was wondering if I could stay the night. No-one's home and I didn't feel like going home to an empty house." Gabriella explained quickly and Joanne laughed at Gabriella's horror stricken face.

"Oh Gabriella, you should know you can stay here anytime you want. Come in." Joanne stepped aside and Gabriella walked inside, wincing slightly as Mia pulled at her hair.

"Thanks Jo. Can you take her, while I go and dump my stuff in Troy's room?" Gabriella asked and Joanne laughed at the pained expression on Gabriella's face.

"Sure." Joanne took her thirteen month old daughter from Gabriella and smiled as she watched her climb the stairs to her son's room.

Gabriella sighed as she reached Troy's room. Pushing open the door, she discovered that someone had cleaned up his room since last time she was there and walked over and dumped her bags on his desk chair. Glancing at the door that lead to the adjoining bathroom, Gabriella sighed when she discovered it was closed. She could very faintly hear the sound of water running and realized that Troy must have just gotten back from practice. Closing her eyes briefly, Gabriella tried to ignore the doubts that had been plaguing her since Sharpay had mentioned them. For a moment she wondered if they'd been there all along and then pushed the thought out of her head.

"And you're here because?" The sound of Troy's voice snapped Gabriella out of her thoughts and she spun around and gulped. He was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, leaning against the door frame, steam from his shower curling around him, a towel wrapped tightly around his waist. She could see condensation forming on his chest and managed to tear her eyes away from it.

"Uh, no-one's at home and I didn't want to go home to an empty house." She replied unsteadily as her eyes flicked to his chest once more. Troy grinned, out of all the torture he'd put her through today, this had to be the best of the best.

"So, you're spending the night?" He asked casually and Gabriella looked at him, her brown eyes pleading him not to do what he was doing.

"Yes. Is that okay? You're mom said it was." She said and Troy shrugged.

"Yeah, its fine." Pushing off the door frame Troy casually walked over to her, watching in satisfaction as Gabriella seemed to freeze.

"Troy……stop being a jerk." Gabriella snapped suddenly, Troy looked down at her in amusement. She was trembling slightly, and he knew she was aware of what he was doing.

"You know how I said that teasing could get you in trouble Montez?" he asked and Gabriella nodded.

"How could I forget?" She replied and Troy grinned and pulled her up against him. He heard her gasp and moved his hand from the small of her back, to under her shirt. Smirking down at her, Troy began to trace invisible designs on her back. Leaning down to her ear, Troy's lips gently grazed it and Gabriella closed her eyes as she felt his hot breath on her neck. Her hands found the edge of the towel and fingered it, her fingers brushing his skin ever so slightly.

"Well, I think that you've gotten into enough trouble for one day." He whispered and before Gabriella could say anything; his lips had crashed into hers, his tongue invading her mouth almost instantly, causing her to whimper slightly and the doubts that had encased her thoughts like a towel since Sharpay and evoked them disappeared completely as they both landed on the bed, his towel loosening with each tug of her hand.

**A/N: Okay, there could be a slight possibility that that turned more….**_**sultry**_** then I expected. A lot more sultry. There could be a slight possibility that this turns to a T rating instead of K+. Anyway, did anyone pick up on what Sharpay did? The next update should be up sooner then this one was. Once again sorry for the unaccountable two week absence!**


	10. Normal Couple

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own High School Musical or any related characters. **

**A/N: I'M CONTUNUING!! Sorry, just felt I better announce that. After a long wait, which a lot of you got a little bit angsty about towards the end, the next chapter of 'Out Of My Element' is up!! Which means the stories going to continue!! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with updating three stories, all with different tones and characters. I'm actually going to try and update a day after the last, so tomorrow, hopefully, 'Dangerous Fascination' will be updated!! Enjoy the long awaited chapter of 'Out Of My Element'!!**

_**Out Of My Element**_

**CHAPTER 10 **

**NORMAL COUPLE**

Gabriella felt a light kiss on her shoulder and ignored it. She was too warm and comfortable to move. She shuddered slightly as she felt Troy nip her earlobe and then murmured something incoherent and rolled over and snuggled into his side. Troy chuckled as he watched his girlfriend burrow herself deeper into the crook of his arm. Gently he ran a hand across her bare back and tangled his fingers in the ends of her hair. For a moment he gazed at her, she looked so innocent and beautiful. With the hand that wasn't wrapped around the girl sleeping beside him, he carefully pushed the curls that had fallen into her face behind her ear and kissed down the side of her face.

"Brie…" He sang softly in her ear when he reached it and Gabriella groaned and kissed his arm sleepily.

"Go away Bolton." She muttered and Troy laughed softly. Tugging the ends of her hair tenderly, Troy kissed behind her ear gently and then half-way down her neck.

"I can't, mom's got the camera and if the blankets come off she's going to know why we went to bed early." He replied and Gabriella's eyes shot open. Her head snapped up from its resting place and she stared at him, her eyes still glazed with sleep. Troy laughed at the look on her face and then untangled his fingers from her hair. Catching her chin in the hand that once rested in her hair, Troy pulled her lips down to his and kissed her gently.

"Good morning," he said when he pulled away. Gabriella looked at him, not exactly sure what had just happened and then she blushed and reburied her face in his shoulder. Feeling him press his lips to her shoulder again, Gabriella looked up and rested her chin on his shoulder instead.

"Good morning, how long do we have till we have to be at school?" She asked and Troy shrugged, his eyes moving from his content girlfriend's face to the alarm clock that sat next to his bed. The brightly glowing numbers read five past six and Troy's looked down at Gabriella again and smiled when he discovered that she had drifted back to sleep. Leaning down he brushed his lips over her forehead.

With gentleness that would surprise some, Troy unwound Gabriella's arms from his body and slipped out of his bed. She whimpered slightly at the sudden loss of warmth, and he bent down and placed his lips on her head again as he pulled the blankets up and covered her properly. Quietly, he found the boxers she'd discarded the night before and pulled them on. As quietly as he could, he found some clean clothes and underwear before slipping into his bathroom to shower. As he closed the door, he glanced back and caught sight of Gabriella, the smile on his face formed without him knowing and when he locked the door, Troy found himself thinking that he was going to wake up from a really long dream one day and turn around to find that Gabriella was never such a complete part of his life. The very thought of not having Gabriella there made Troy pause and unlock the door just to make sure she was still there. Even as he did it, he berated himself for thinking something like that. She wasn't going to disappear, no matter how much he got to her. Shutting the door again, Troy turned on the shower and stripped down. Stepping into it, he closed his eyes as the water pounded against his back.

God, it felt so good to be able to do something like this. It felt great to wake up next to his girlfriend, be able to kiss her in greeting and then know that when he got out of the shower she was still going to be there. It was like they were a normal couple, a couple that didn't have arguments that ran in circles, that exchanged kisses that didn't have to be anger or even hate-filled, that could cuddle on the lounge or in his bed without the increasingly sexual tension that they were known for. Troy frowned slightly as the last thought left his mind; he wondered what the rest of the school would think if they saw the way he and Gabriella acted when they weren't at school. He had a feeling it would make the rumors and attitudes at school even worse than they already were. He knew she thought that he hadn't been paying attention at school, least of all the comments about them being together, but Troy was more than aware of the comments that were being made about their relationship, not to mention the uproar that the callbacks had caused. It was easy to ignore the remarks when people he didn't even know where making them, but when his best friend was the one that was saying it, it was slightly harder to ignore.

Turning off the shower, Troy opened the shower door and grabbed a towel. Drying himself, Troy had to wonder what exactly had gotten into his best friend. He'd been fine before the callbacks and than, out of no where, he was telling Troy that Gabriella was one of the worse things that had ever happened to him. At first Troy had thought that it had something to do with him and Taylor taking a break, but as the days had passed, Chad had grown increasingly aggressive in his attitude towards his relationship. Pulling on his jeans, Troy rubbed a towel through his hair and sighed. Chad was driving him absolutely insane with his comments and the more his friend talked, the more Troy found the idea of doing the callbacks, something he _knew_ was so important to Gabriella, a very, very bad idea. Making an attempt at placing the towel on the rack, Troy rolled his eyes as it crumpled to the ground and unlocked the door. Walking out into his room, he grinned when he saw Gabriella curled around a pillow. Moving over to her, Troy leaned down and brushed his lips up against hers gently.

"Brie, baby, wake up, you can have a shower now," Troy whispered in her ear and Gabriella murmured something even as Troy pressed his lips to her shoulder. Her arm wrapped around his neck and she made an attempt at pulling him down to her. "Gabi, wake up, come on, you might get breakfast if your up." Troy whispered and Gabriella's eyes opened sleepily. Smiling slightly, she leaned up to press her lips to his. Troy smirked slightly, before pulling away from her and watching as she groaned.

"Tr-oy," she groaned and he laughed.

"No kisses until you're showered and down in the kitchen," he whispered and Gabriella pouted as he pulled on a shirt and avoided kissing her as he moved away from the bed. He looked back and grinned at Gabriella's face as he walked out of his room.

Running down the stairs at breakneck speed, Troy skidded into his kitchen and nearly fell over when he saw his mother standing next to the bench, sipping coffee as she watched her son grab hold of the bench to keep himself upright.

"Jeez Mom, do you practice doing that or what?" Troy gasped as Joanne placed her coffee down and folded her arms across her chest.

"No. You just always freak out when I'm awake at the same time you are," Joanne replied and Troy shrugged.

"So? Why are you awake?" He replied and Joanne smiled, wondering slightly if she should embarrass her son this early in the morning or not. Seeing no harm in it, Joanne smiled and watched as his eyes became wary.

"Oh you know, your sister was awake at all hours of the night," lifting up her cup, Joanne watched Troy over the rim. "So where you by the sounds of it." Troy went bright red at his mother's words and found something very interesting about the bench.

"Um, you heard?" He asked bashfully and Joanne laughed at his face and tone, very rarely did she try and torment her son but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

"Troy, your room is right next to your sisters, I would have to be deaf not to hear some of the sounds coming out of it." Troy went even redder at his mother's words and his hand flew to rub the back of his neck.

"Uh, Mom, did you…are you mad?" Troy asked and Joanne burst into laughter at the look on his face, he looked like the five year old who didn't know if she was furious with him or not. Shaking her head, she walked over to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Troy, if I was mad, I would have interrupted," Troy's eyes widened at her words and he looked at her. "No, I'm not mad. I've known for quite a while what you and Gabriella do behind closed door and as your father pointed out to me, your seventeen, soon to be eighteen, and if you weren't doing what I know you were doing last night, with your beautiful girlfriend, than there's something wrong with you." Troy's mouth dropped open at his mother's words and he stared at her wordlessly, completely unable to believe that those words had come out of his mother's mouth and even more mortified that she was completely fine with it.

"Okay, Mom, this is slightly embarrassing." Troy said and Joanne laughed at the look on his face as well as his choice of words.

"Just slightly? I remember when your father and I were your age, my mother was very aware of what I had done in the back-" Troy interrupted Joanne before she could finish her sentence.

"Mom, no offence or anything, but I really don't need to hear about yours and Dad's early sex life. It's disturbing enough that you're okay with what Gabriella and I did in the house last night. And that you heard us." Troy added as an afterthought and Joanne just smiled. Picking up her coffee cup, she patted her sons cheek and would have pressed a kiss to his forehead had he not looked so disturbed about the conversation they'd just had.

"I'm going to get your sister and we'll wake up your father, I'll see you in a little while." Joanne told him and left the kitchen with an air of content amusement as Troy stared after his mother with a stunned expression. Turning back to the kitchen, Troy felt like curling into a ball and pretending the conversation had never happened. Instead, he began to move around it, getting out a mug and pouring himself a cup of coffee. Hearing a noise behind him as he raised the coffee to his lips, Troy turned around and grinned at Gabriella even as the coffee scolded his tongue.

"Feel more awake?" He asked as she walked over to him and took the mug off him. Nodding her head as she sipped from the cup, she made a face at the strong taste and then leaned up to kiss him.

"Much better now," she replied and Troy kissed her nose.

"Good," he said and got out a bowl from the cupboard. Gabriella settled against the bench as he poured out some cereal and got out two spoons, knowing full well she'd prefer to eat from his bowl than her own if he got her one. Watching as he poured the milk over the cereal, Gabriella sipped the coffee and then made a sound of protest as he took it off her.

"Hey! I was drinking that." She snapped and he shot her a grin that made her melt on the inside.

"I know, and I can't deal with a hypo Gabriella if I haven't had my fair share of the coffee." Troy replied and Gabriella glared at him.

"I do not go hypo from coffee!" Gabriella shot at him even as he lifted his spoon to her mouth and slid it in.

"Sure you do, do I really need to remind you of all the times you've had coffee and gone off?" He asked, accepting her own spoon and watching her face as he chewed on the cereal. Gabriella glared at him for a moment, before pouting.

"That's not fair Troy; you have too many good stories about me and coffee." She said and he laughed at her words as he fed her more cereal.

"That's because you only drink coffee when I'm around you, because I drink it," he said and she rolled her eyes, annoyed at the fact that she had lost the argument and even more annoyed that he'd been so cute when he was doing it. Sliding closer to him, Gabriella slipped her arm around him and leaned her head on his shoulder. Troy's own arm wrapped around her shoulders even as she accepted more cereal from his spoon.

"Have I mentioned how much I love you lately?" Gabriella asked her voice lazy and content. She felt that way too, so content to just be snuggled into his side that her temper didn't spark when she heard his surprised chuckle.

"Not recently, you have mentioned how I manage to drive you insane, though." Troy said and Gabriella grinned at his words.

"I thought I hadn't," moving her head to see him clearly, Gabriella reached up with her other hand and touched his cheek, turning his face to hers. "I love you so much Troy. I love everything you are and nothing will stop me from loving you the way I do." She said, fighting an urge to blush and an unfamiliar sweep of shyness and uncertainty at the dark storm of his eyes. Before she could make an attempt at taking the words back, Troy leaned in and covered her mouth with his.

Feeling his hand lift and run through her hair, Gabriella cradled his face in her hand on responded to the kiss. She felt dizzy even as his mouth lifted from hers, her eyes remained closed as he rested his cheek against hers.

"I love you too, you're my everything Brie and nothing will ever change that." Troy said and Gabriella's lips curled into a smile that was for him and him alone.

HSM-HSM-HSM-HSM-HSM

Walking into school, Troy's arm draped comfortably around her neck, blissfully unaware of the odd looks they were receiving as they walked down the hallway, Gabriella barely realized she was looking for Sharpay even as she found her. She waved at the blonde and smiled as Sharpay sent her a smile and wave back. As soon as Sharpay had acknowledged her, Gabriella turned her attention back to Troy and didn't see the blonde's look of utter disbelief as she watched the couple continue to walk down the hallway. She'd been so sure she'd seen something flash in Gabriella's eyes when she'd mentioned her and Troy's relationship the day before. Turning back to her locker, Sharpay checked her hair in the mirror before shutting the door and heading off to Gabriella's locker.

Gabriella giggled as Troy's arms wrapped themselves tightly around her waist as she opened her locker and placed her bag inside. Leaning back against him, she made no protest as he kissed her neck.

"Troy, you have to go to your locker before homeroom." Gabriella said after a moment and Troy kissed behind ear gently.

"I know, but you have to come with me," he said and Gabriella turned around to look up at him.

"Nuh-uh, you have to go, otherwise I'll get the wrong books for the first two periods," she said and he laughed at her words.

"You will not, just come with me." He said and Gabriella shook her head and pressed a kiss to his jaw.

"No, go by yourself; I'll see you in homeroom I promise." She said and Troy rolled his eyes at her words before nodding. Leaning down he kissed her quickly and left with an air of reluctance that made her giggle. Gabriella leaned against the locker next to hers and watched him go.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with the Gabriella we all knew?" Turning her head at Sharpay's voice Gabriella just shook her head.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said and Sharpay rolled her eyes at Gabriella's words.

"Sure you don't, yesterday, you wanted to snap Troy's neck and now you two are acting like," Sharpay searched for something to explain them. "Like a couple who only just discovered their love for each other, with the kissing, and the giggling and holding. What happened? You guys reached your locker without an argument, that's never happened before." Sharpay said and Gabriella shrugged at her words.

"We haven't argued all morning actually. I don't know what happened, we're just acting like we do whenever we're at his place, or mine for that matter," seeing the look on Sharpay's face, Gabriella let out another giggle. "Don't get me wrong Sharpay, Troy and I'll be arguing by this afternoon, but this morning I think we're just going to be a normal couple." She said and Sharpay nodded at her words. Before she could say anything, Gabriella had shut her locker door and linked their arms.

"Um, okay, you guys are just going to act like a normal couple for this morning." Sharpay said and Gabriella nodded.

"Uh-huh, a completely normal couple, don't look so worried Shar, it's not the end of the world." Gabriella said and Sharpay laughed at her. Unable to stop herself from enjoying Gabriella's company and liking the fact that the nickname only her brother and parents were allowed to use, rolled off Gabriella's tongue.

"It might be, but if you guys are going to act like a normal couple for once, the least I can do is try and not laugh." Sharpay said and Gabriella nodded, patting the blondes hand.

"That's all I ask," she said and Sharpay smiled.

"Alright, now let's get to homeroom so you can be a 'normal' couple with your boyfriend." Sharpay said and Gabriella laughed as the two girls began to walk towards their homeroom, chattering aimlessly, as comfortable with each other as close friends.

**A/N: Okay, that last bit with Sharpay is really important; it'll come into play later in the story. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that!! It felt so good to write this again!! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it and don't worry, Troy and Gabriella will be back to their normal fiery selves in the next chapter!!**


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